Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the news and newsmakers of the day who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life or detracted from it in some significant way…

The City of Edgewater Sets a Bold Example

In my recent autopsy of our local election results, I took some criticism for voicing the view that Volusia County Council Chair Jeff Brower’s victory represents a “mandate” for direct action on those environmental and growth issues he championed during his tumultuous first term.   

A reader suggested that my “…use of the word “mandate” in connection with a county-wide election having a margin of about 7,000 votes (about a percentage point) is ill-advised. More accurately, that’s a “squeaker.”

Although I hate explaining myself, the fact is, Mr. Brower’s grassroots campaign was outspent (4:1), he was openly maligned by his elected “colleagues” on the dais (who beat Brower like a borrowed mule at the bidding of their well-heeled overseers), he was falsely accused in a mysteriously funded glossy mailer of mollycoddling sex offenders, while his opponent received the ringing endorsement of all the right last names and the Republican Executive Committee of Volusia ran interference – yet, he still emerged victorious on a platform focused on smart growth initiatives.

So, I’ll stick to my original assessment… 

In my view, given all the internal and external obstacles he overcame, Brower’s win represents a clear citizen mandate for addressing the impacts of malignant growth on existing residents, infrastructure, and public utilities.

As evidence of that, just days before the election, Chairman Brower appeared on the steps of the Volusia County Courthouse in Daytona Beach flanked by flood victims to call for a temporary moratorium on development until a flood mitigation plan can be reached.

The angry response from development shills like District 3 Councilman Danny “Gaslight” Robins, At-Large Representative “Jake the Snake” Johansson, and Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry was telling – and demonstrated just how far some compromised politicians will go to kiss the sizeable asses of their political benefactors – always to the detriment of their waterlogged constituents.

Now, some observers are suggesting that the meanspirited kabuki staged by Robins and Johansson in the face of devastated flood victims represents what’s to come in Brower’s second term – others believe it signaled the exact second Jake and Danny’s political careers ended…

To prove the urgency many elected representatives across the region are giving the problem, last week the Edgewater City Council held a workshop to discuss two proposed moratoriums – a temporary pause to give them time to address flooding in the heavily affected community.

One would limit residential development citywide with exceptions for commercial development and Hurricane Milton repairs.  The other would place a hold on the issuance of building permits that may “increase impervious surfaces” in the Florida Shores Drainage Basin.

According to an informative piece by reporter Brenno Carillo writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, the Florida Shores moratorium “…would stop “consideration of building permits that would increase impervious surface area, such as, but not limited to, new single-family homes, additions, detached garages, sheds, pools, driveways, patios on any parcel within the Florida Shores Drainage Basin” area, according to the presentation.”

In addition, “The other moratorium would be citywide and imposed “on the consideration of annexations, rezonings, comprehensive plan amendments, site plans, preliminary plats and final plats,” according to Solstice.

The measure would only affect residential developments, not commercial or industrial projects.”

To his credit, Edgewater’s man-child Mayor Deizel Depew said he “cannot in good faith” approve more development until a comprehensive stormwater masterplan is in place.  

“I’ve lived in Florida Shores my whole, entire life,” DePew, 20, said. “We don’t know where our current watershed is going, we have several developments that have come on board since 2014. (The stormwater masterplan) needs to be updated as fast as can be.”

In my view, if Edgewater can see the dire need to tap the brakes while they evaluate changes to how and where they develop in the face of recurrent flooding, why can’t Volusia County take the lead on controlling fill and build development practices, improve stormwater management, and work cooperatively with the municipalities to find answers?   

That’s rhetorical… 

In my view, the glaringly obvious answer is the voracious greed of a real estate development industry that owns the political souls of the majority of the Volusia County Council – most of whom are bought and paid for marionettes with inherently corrupt instincts and an egoistic need to be considered part of the “in-crowd” – dull tools who dutifully serve their master’s to the detriment of those of us who are expected to pay the bills and suffer in silence. 

According to reports, Edgewater officials will hold a townhall meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, November 18, at the Bella Vista Baptist Church, 3232 South Ridgewood Avenue. 

Residents will be provided additional information on flood mitigation efforts and have an opportunity to ask questions.  In my view, if Edgewater officials hold the course and use lessons learned to form best practices, this dynamic community-oriented approach could be a blueprint for how Florida governments ultimately address development induced flooding.

DIY Engineering in Palm Coast?

Unlike the City of Edgewater, it appears Palm Coast officials are opting to deal with development induced and infill flooding by not dealing with it… 

Sound familiar?

When angry homeowners stormed Palm Coast City Hall last fall demanding answers to a flawed drainage system that allows runoff from new development and infill projects to flood adjoining properties, a temporary moratorium proposed by City Council member Theresa Pontieri was quickly nixed by the shortsighted majority. 

Instead, the city’s building and stormwater departments tweaked language in a “technical manual” that (finally) placed responsible height limits – no more than 22 inches above the crown of the road or more than a 10-inch height difference between the floor elevation of neighboring homes – on future growth. 

But what about waterlogged existing Palm Coast residents?

Well, dust off your civil engineering degrees, folks… 

Unbelievably, City officials – in cooperation with something called the Residential Drainage Advisory Committee – will now offer homeowners five cubic yards of city owned “surplus dirt” to use as they see fit to control stormwater runoff flowing from adjacent lots.

You read that right.

According to city press release, “It’s important to note that drainage fixes are not one-size-fits-all. Each property has unique needs, and some projects may require additional steps. If machinery is used to spread the dirt on the premises, homeowners will need to obtain a grading permit issued by the City of Palm Coast. The permit ensures compliance with local regulations and helps maintain proper drainage functionality.”

A grading permit will set resident’s back $82 bucks.

To fix a problem the City of Palm Coast created?

Whatever…

Because the City of Palm Coast cannot legally use public funds for private benefit, to keep things on the up-and-up, the “surplus” dirt will be available to all taxpaying residents of Palm Coast – not just those experiencing flooding. 

According to the release, the program has been assisted by a local surveyor who conducted surveys of 29 residential properties to help identify areas in “need of improvement.”

What could go wrong?

During a meeting earlier this week, bewildered Palm Coast residents voiced their logical concerns. 

According to an article in the Ormond Beach Observer:

“I’m telling you right now, this is not going to work,” resident Celia Pugliese said.

P Section resident Jeremy Davis has been one of the council’s most vocal critics on how the council and city has responded to residents’ drainage issues. He has told his story multiple times: a house was built in the empty lot next to his at a much higher height and since then, he said he has had water coming on to his property and even in his home that was never there before.

Davis called the 5 cubic yards offered “hilarious.”

“That’s not going to help me,” Davis said. “This is a waste of my time.”

Davis said it would be equally unfair for residents like himself to be required to pay for a permit to fix a problem caused by city staff and builders approving a home built higher than existing homes.

“Come up with real solutions,” Davis said.”

I agree with incredulous Palm Coast residents – but bureaucrats know that real problem solving can get expensive and time-consuming – while kicking the can down the dusty political trail costs nothing…

So, it appears the City of Palm Coast is opting to permit shade tree hydrological engineers to develop a hodgepodge of drainage “fixes” – 29 competing solutions, each designed to manage flooding on individual parcels – without ever addressing the mercurial problem of stormwater management.   

Look, there’s a reason doctors suggest you don’t remove your own inflamed appendix – or perform a root canal on that touchy molar – because those procedures are better left to trained professionals. Educated, experienced, and credentialed experts who can diagnose the problem holistically, find a solution, and develop a comprehensive treatment plan without doing more harm in the process.

In my view, like the remainder of Florida, the massive municipality of Palm Coast has been set upon by elected development shills who weaseled their way onto the dais of power and took full advantage of the shambolic dysfunction that permeates the City Council to foment more, more, more malignant growth and willy-nilly residential infill without any viable plan or smart growth regulations.

Now it is time for cities and counties who have adopted growth at all cost development strategies to be held legally and politically liable for permitting what they knew or should have known would have catastrophic impacts on existing residents.

In my view, that level of officially sanctioned negligence should be criminal…

Quote of the Week

“Several residents who live near the future development spoke before the board at its meeting on existing flooding issues, and voiced concerns that the development of Ormond Crossings will worsen conditions.

“It floods even if you do not have a hurricane, very, very badly,” Ormond Beach resident Jordan Huntley said.

Resident Darrel Bugno said he’s lived in his home in Durrance Lane for over 25 years and has experienced water in front of his driveway over 3-and-a-half feet deep.

“It happened last year,” he said. “It happened this year. And what’s going to happen next year? If this goes in, the people who have houses out there are all going to flood out. Water came within 10 feet of my house.”

On behalf of Ormond Crossings’ developer, representative Jamie Poulos said that as the development moves forward in more detail, a master stormwater plan will be created, to be reviewed by the city, the county St. Johns River Water Management District and FEMA.”

–Jarleene Almenas, Ormond Beach Observer, “Ormond Crossings amendment gets OK by Ormond Beach Planning Board,” Wednesday, October 30, 2024  

In the hubbub of the election, the first amendment to the slumbering behemoth known as Ormond Crossings escaped mention. 

For the uninitiated, the 3,000-acre project dates to 2002 when Ormond Beach was a much different place and will span the east and west side of I-95 and areas south of US-1, blanketing areas of Volusia and Flagler counties with 2,950 residential units and some 2.5 million square feet of retail, office, light industrial and warehouse space.

According to the Ormond Observer, last month, the Ormond Beach planning board voted to approve a request from the developer of Ormond Crossings to allow single-family homes in place of multifamily units in a portion of the property south of U.S. 1.

“Why the change from multifamily to single-family? Poulos said it’s because of the wetlands.

“We’re trying to minimize wetland impacts,” he said.”

Sure they are… 

I found it disturbing that while plans are moving swiftly through the approval process, the developer has yet to produce a master stormwater plan detailing how they will mitigate flooding concerns – especially now that longtime area residents have made it clear the area is already susceptible – going on record that the thousands of residential units proposed for Ormond Crossings will only exacerbate the problem. 

This one’s important.  Because if they get it wrong, our grandchildren will pay the price…

My hope is that Ormond Beach’s new Mayor Jason Leslie will provide the strong leadership necessary to address how development amendments are considered (let alone approved) without so much as a comprehensive stormwater plan in place – all while the experiential concerns of frightened existing residents are glossed over by some developer’s mouthpiece with a chip in the game.   

And Another Thing!

On Monday, I watched as the Deltona City Commission interrupted Veteran’s Day observances to hold a special meeting during which the solemn oath of office was administered to four newly elected members.    

A heady celebration of what many long-suffering resident’s hope foretells new beginnings, rather than more of the same…  

Time will tell. 

As I watched the transfer of power in the Lost City of Deltona – the typical ceremonial pomp, with the freshman commission members preening and posing for photographs with their proud families – I thought it fortunate that attendees were spared the acrimony many feared when former Commissioner “Jody Lee” ominously threatened to “name names” regarding what he described as “election interference” and issues with charter officers in a post-election interview with the West Volusia Beacon.  

In fact, neither “Jody Lee” or former Commissioner Dana McCool attended the special meeting…

Which was disappointing. 

But hard feelings run deep in politics – especially in Wild West Volusia… 

The last thing the longsuffering residents of Deltona need is more posturing and melodrama from the dais of power – and regardless of the venom and rancor of the campaign season – continuity of governance and confidence in our sacred democratic process demand an orderly transition. 

Unfortunately, despite the hopes of a new majority, Deltona’s external interests and influences were palpable in the Commission Chambers – like worms in the wood that forms the very structure of governance in that troubled place – entrenched, damaging, and hard to see from the outside looking in.

But on Monday, hope reigned supreme for long-suffering residents desperate for a way forward.

Those necessary changes begin with strong leadership. 

An end to bullying, obstructionism, and playing the martyred victim – more honest dialog, transparency, and attention to the real needs of those who pay the bills – less deference to influential special interests.    

My stock in trade is poking fun and making snide observations on the abject absurdity inherent to local politics – a jaundiced look at the weird machinations of governance here on Florida’s “Fun Coast” – my take on the interesting characters both in front and behind the curtain who manipulate the rods and strings.

In retirement, offering unsolicited advice, criticizing those actually in the arena, and pointing out where the strongman stumbled has become a guilty pleasure of mine.  After a lifetime in public service, these often-caustic screeds are cathartic – an ipecac of sorts – a creative outlet that helps purge my craw of the issues of the day…

The fact is, during a lengthy career in municipal government, I learned a few things about the importance of local governance and the delivery of essential services, including the actual role of elected officials in how the sausage gets made and the significance of accountability, accessibility, transparency, and trust.     

I originally posted a version of these maxims following the hotly contested elections of 2020, sort of an “Idiot’s Guide to local Governance” from an uneducated rube who clawed his way to middle management and hung on by my fingernails… 

In my view, these lessons remain relevant for newly elected officials, and a reminder for those incumbents who continue to wield power from their respective dais of power.   

During the campaign season, I took in the pie-in-the-sky goals of some of our newly elected officials who are about to experience their first sweet taste of power and influence in the microcosm of a local or regional government – where the haughty trappings of office and the obsequious fawning of their “new friends” with ulterior motives can be more intoxicating than 101 proof bourbon.

Meeting those highfalutin goals won’t be easy for most – and downright impossible for some – especially in places like the gilded Volusia County Council chamber where Chairman Jeff Brower learned a few things during his first term about what happens to campaign promises and legislative effectiveness when a square peg refuses to be forced into the round hole of conformity…

During my productive life, I once heard a story from a newly minted city commissioner who was invited to a congratulatory dinner by a prominent real estate developer.  The incredibly impressed neophyte politician – a service industry worker by trade – was over the moon with newfound hubris when the wealthy businessman paid for his dinner and drinks with a flashy “Black” American Express Centurion card.

It was an effective prop, of course.  The trappings of success.    

A physical reminder of all the fine things money and power can bring, and I thought how easily alliances are changed, ethics compromised, and campaign promises ignored when the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker enter this heady new world – a place where they are finally treated like “equals” by people who wouldn’t have given them the time of day before the election – a slippery slope where wide-eyed novice politicians are told anything is possible with the right application of the people’s money. 

An ultimately cruel and unforgiving place where the losers are immediately forgotten, like so much worthless rubbish when they no longer hold value for those once ingratiating “friends” who stand at the nexus of public funds and private profit motives.

Nobody said public service would be easy.  If someone did, they lied to you.   

Trust me – you’re going to hear a lot of artful avarice and misrepresentations during your term. 

If I were to purchase a gift for newly elected politicians preparing to take their seat it would be a simple hand mirror.

When the time comes – and it will – when the crown lays heavy and the feeling of infallibility overcomes the willingness to listen, when neighbors are screaming for their head, and chippie critics like me are bitching about how they screwed up the difficult calls, when compromising their personal ethics would be the easiest course, or when special interests who contributed to their campaign lobby hard for a controversial vote – they could use that mirror to take an introspective look at themselves and remember all the reasons why they sought to serve in the first place. 

To those ascending or returning to high office, here are some things I learned after a long public life that may help once the euphoria of the “big win” and self-aggrandizing celebrations have ended. 

Consider it the last gift you’ll receive with no strings attached:

Those rubber-chicken dinners – elegant “galas” with haughty elbow rubbing, ego massaging speeches, and silly plaques are not important.  Coffee with a concerned constituent is.

All people really want is to be heard.

Pay attention to those who pay the bills.  Make a place at the table for your constituents, hear them out, respect their hard-earned opinions, fight for their right to participate in a meaningful way, then incorporate their suggestions into the decision-making process.

Humility, and a true willingness to admit honest mistakes – then working hard to correct them – is omnipotent to winning and keeping the public’s trust.  Never forget that people can forgive those errors and omissions they see themselves making.

Your constituents – your neighbors – understand that you are human, but they expect and deserve a commitment to the ultimate in ethical, moral, and honorable behavior that respects human dignity, obeys the rule of law, and brings honor to public service. 

That means keeping your public and private life unsullied as an example to all.

(Read that again.)

Citizens also demand that their elected representatives hold themselves and others in positions of power accountable for their actions. 

Anything less weakens the system.

As hard as it may seem at the time, effective servant-leaders use the withering criticism they receive as a barometer of community sentiment.  The loudest person in the room is not always right. 

They aren’t always wrong either.  

You can always tell when an elected official has gotten their feelings hurt when they drone on from the dais, sugarcoating their “service” and “accomplishments,” rewriting recorded history, marginalizing their detractors, and labeling critics “liars” – all while heaping accolades on senior staff members who sooth their ego by telling them exactly what they want to hear.

That sense of elitism springs organically in the cloistered Halls of Power…

When making decisions on development and zoning amendments, consider our fragile environment and water source. That’s not the popular approach with the “Rich & Powerful,” but protecting wildlife and greenspace should be nonnegotiable.

I encourage you to support those career civil servants who do the heavy lifting and deliver essential services to the community.  Listen to their suggestions and never use them as pawns or scapegoats for political expediency.

They were here when you came, and they will remain when you leave…

Demand exacting standards of excellence from the city/county manager – he or she holds more cards than any one elected official – and they are the gatekeeper to the information you need to make an informed decision. 

Give the executive the courtesy of frequent, fair, and objective performance reviews – criticize privately and praise the team’s effort publicly – so the manager always knows where they stand, what you expect, and how they can improve.

These professionals earn a lot of money and perquisites because they understand the responsibilities and volatility inherent to managing a machine with a lot of moving parts that is fueled by public funds.  

Should the time come, never hesitate to change tack, and bring new vision and leadership to the team.  In my experience, holding onto bad managers for the sake of short-term “stability” is the leading cause of governmental dysfunction – civic damage that can be extremely expensive to repair.

Most important – in public service, moral courage is defined as the mental and ethical strength that sees us through challenges and ensures we do the right thing – despite the potential personal or political cost.

Lead by personal example as you make the tough decisions that impact the lives and livelihoods of those you serve. 

Find that moral courage – hold firm to your sacred oath of office and core values – and take pride in the fact your neighbors have put their confidence in your ability to lead, to work collaboratively, and your vision for our collective future.

Lastly, remain humble, never lose sight of the impermanence of power and position.

“All glory is fleeting…”

That’s all for me.  Enjoy a great weekend, y’all!

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the news and newsmakers of the day who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life or detracted from it in some significant way…

Decision 2024

“All power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people, which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty and the right of acquiring property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their government whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purpose of its institution.”

–James Madison

I’m not one to gloat or pout in the aftermath of an election.

“Magnanimous in victory, gracious in defeat” I say.   

Whether you agree with the outcome or not, the American people have spoken with their sacred vote – and our democracy worked as well as it can in 2024. The will of the people.  A peaceful transition of power.   

Some of the candidates and amendments I voted for won, others lost.  That’s what makes a horserace – and a government in this representative democracy…   

There was a time when we accepted the results of elections, coalesced as a nation and community, respected diverse opinions, worked toward a common goal, and moved forward with a clear understanding of the will and direction sought by the majority of voters. 

Not anymore. 

But at this pivotal moment, I believe how we as neighbors work out the serious issues facing our nation and community will define us – and the unblinking eye of history is watching…   

As loyal readers of these screeds know, I focus on the local issues important to your family and mine, and I was elated to see the biggest race on the local stage go to incumbent Volusia County Chair Jeff Brower in his epic fight against “Car Guy” Randy Dye. 

In my view, while Mr. Dye – a gentleman with a long history of civic and charitable involvement – may have gotten into the race with the best intentions, he was quickly used by Volusia’s stodgy “Old Guard” who saw him as their best hope for achieving lockstep conformity on the horribly compromised County Council.

As the race progressed, Mr. Dye seemed to embrace that role – even when he was being trotted out like a show horse by sitting Councilmen Danny Robins and Jake Johansson to publicly pooh-pooh the very real concerns of Volusia County flood victims – an ugly and callous scene that unfolded on the steps of a courthouse in Daytona Beach that painted Mr. Dye as just another dull tool of influential development interests… 

Not a good look – and something many believe will be remembered into 2026…     

Per usual, those stalwarts of the status quo pulled out all the stops, with the Republican Executive Committee of Volusia going as far as using some weird parliamentary shenanigans to intentionally block Brower from the infamous “Official Republican Voter Guide,” even after he carried the primary.

Something that left many local Republicans suggesting that Brower’s win on Tuesday represents the last time the tyrannical RECV Chair Paul Deering and Co. will manipulate an election…   

In addition, Tuesday saw a refreshing changing of the guard on the Volusia County School Board as perennial politician Carl Persis lost big to newcomer Donna Brosemer in District 4; while the impressive businesswoman and entrepreneur Krista Goodrich took the District 2 race.

The other half of Volusia’s former ‘power couple,’ Susan Persis, lost to freshman politician Jason Leslie – a virtual unknown in the cloistered world of Ormond Beach politics, where one’s pedigree seemed to command more respect than vision, leadership, or strategic thought.

Not anymore. 

Congratulations to Mayor-elect Leslie on doing what many thought was impossible – wrenching the reins of power from the entrenched influential insiders Ms. Persis represented… 

Over in Wild West Volusia, things took a distinctive turn on the Lost City of Deltona’s dais – where James “Nick” Lulli defeated incumbent Commissioner Jody Lee Storozuk in a nasty District 6 race – with Dori Howington defeating incumbent Commissioner Dana McCool in District 4.

In District 1, the intrepid Deltona civic activist Brandy Lee White lost to Davison Heriot.  I hope Ms. White continues to bring the heat to the Deltona City Commission.  She is more influential speaking her truth from the podium than if she had been taken into the confines of elective service.   

According to whispers I’ve received here at Barker’s View HQ this week, in coming hours/days Deltona residents are about to get hit with yet another fusillade of disturbing allegations and insinuations emanating from City Hall…not what Deltona needs now. 

To add insult, according to a report by the West Volusia Beacon, the now lame duck Commissioner “Jody Lee” plans to hold a special commission meeting to “…discuss two items. I want to talk about charter officers, and I want to talk about election interference in Deltona. People are not going to like what I have to say.”

“Storozuk said he plans “to name names” and give details about his allegations.

As for his loss at the polls, Storozuk decried the Volusia County Republican Executive Committee for refusing to endorse him over Lulli. Municipal elections are officially nonpartisan races, but the parties do usually support or oppose candidates for these local offices.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same…

Some Deltona residents I’ve heard from are concerned their “new” commission was tailored by powerful Volusia County political and special interests to accommodate the wants and whims of developers.  That’s disturbing. 

And therein lies the problem.  

Call it post-election fatigue – and I hate to sound blasé amid the post-election euphoria many Volusia County residents are feeling – but regardless of who “won” or “lost,” nothing changes anyway. 

On Florida’s fabled “Fun Coast” our entrenched bureaucratic “system” ensures that.

Here, the stagnant status quo is still protected by staggered elections, a deep pocketed and incredibly powerful Donor Class, and the strict obedience the “system” demands from those who serve it; all perpetuated by the legalized quid pro quo corruption of our skewed campaign finance scheme.    

Now that the bizarre théâtre de l’absurde that passes for our local elections is over, it is time for newly elected politicians to put their words into action and finally live up to the lofty promises that flowed so freely during the thrust and parry of the campaign season.  

They won’t. 

Sadly, these elected figureheads are just cogs on a wheel – and given the fact that incumbent District 2 Councilman Matt Reinhart will be returning to the dais following his defeat of Steve Miller – the composition and obstructionism of the Volusia County Council remains exactly the same… 

The only difference is the citizen mandate that Chairman Jeff Brower was handed on Tuesday – a demand by Volusia County residents to take control of the malignant sprawl that is destroying our remaining greenspace, overwhelming our existing infrastructure, and has resulted in recurrent development induced flooding.

But the fact remains, Chairman Brower is still just one vote. He cannot do it alone.

Time will tell if the remainder of the council got the memo and join with Brower to enact a temporary moratorium on growth until solutions can be found.

(Wanna guess how that vote will go?)

Regardless, the real power remains in the executive suites of the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Building, and they will continue to craft public policy behind the scenes as our future is dictated in spite of those we elect to represent our interests, not because of them.

That’s not unique to Volusia County government.   

Like every year before, in City Hall’s everywhere, senior staff and those political benefactors who invested so much money supporting hand-select candidates are busy taking their newly elected chattel into the maw of the horribly bloated bureaucracy by reminding them which side their bread is buttered on.  

(Mark my words, Ormond Beach Mayor-elect Jason Leslie, you’re about to have more “friends” than you know what to do with…)

Obsequious backslappers and “advice-givers” inside government and out who suddenly laugh at their jokes, feign interest in everything they say, and slowly receive them into the inner sanctum of the Ivory Tower of Power where they will remain welcome, relative to the discussion, and politically protected so long as they go along and have a good relationship with “the way things work” in Volusia County politics. 

And, once again, the cycle of bureaucratic self-protection comes full circle…

Don’t take my word for it.  Join me up here in the cheap seats and watch. 

Politicians who once promised to listen to We, The Little People, will soon view entrenched bureaucrats as the only “experts” on any issue coming before them, droning PowerPoints full of confusing acronyms will provide political insulation, and our “representatives” will become firmly convinced of their own infallibility, while constituent concerns (and solutions) are scoffed at.

Then, slowly but surely, our newly elected egomaniacs will transmogrify into everything they hated when entering politics… 

Most ominous, freshman commissioners and councilmembers learn that anyone who breaks from the carefully choreographed script becomes the victim of organized political shunning – the physical, parliamentary, and emotional rejection of a duly elected member of the Volusia County Council as a means of modifying behavior, limiting influence, and forcing allegiance to the status quo. 

Ask Chairman Jeff Brower how that works…

For good reason, we no longer expect much from our elected representatives – that sense of having someone on “our side” in the halls of power has been beaten out of us by the machinations of bait-and-switch campaign tactics – where politicians say one thing at election time, then do another once in office, painting rosy pictures that don’t comport with our experience, asking us to doubt what we see with our own eyes.

The result is a stodgy and homogenized conventionality, a rigid closed system protected and perpetuated by those elites with a chip in the game who use government for its power while perverting its purpose.

If we are in fact a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, then those we elect should elevate that lofty goal in everything they do.  In my view, that begins by returning a more egalitarian and transparent system to Volusia County.

Each election, I am astounded by just how tone-deaf and selfish our local ‘movers-and-shakers’ can be. 

Call it an obtuse insensitivity to what the average Volusia County resident is feeling, or just a cruel indifference to the suffering of others, the sole focus being that the public teat remains patent and accessible for all the right last names…    

Regardless, there is a real disconnect between the social, civic, and economic elite on the “inside,” and those trying to eke out a living in this artificial economy, where incentives and infusions of public funds go to some well-connected businesses, while others are allowed to wither and die.

Now, add to that list waterlogged homeowners who have once again gutted their worldly possession after the latest flood and you see just how out-of-touch some “Very Important People” in our community truly are.  

Like I said, that “disconnect” was never more evident than in the waning days of the campaign season when flood victims gathered with Volusia County Chair Jeff Brower in Daytona Beach to demand a temporary moratorium on development until a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy can be developed.

Unbelievably, At-Large Councilman “Jake the Snake” Johansson and District 3 Councilman Danny Robins (both of whom have continuing political aspirations) marginalized the suffering of their constituents for political gain, while stumping for “Car Guy” Randy Dye – doing their collective duty to those who hold the paper on their political souls by kowtowing to the demands of their “Rich and Powerful” benefactors.

In my view, that wasn’t just cruel – it was stupid.      

In the view of many, the Brower/Dye matchup was a referendum of the “growth at all costs” strategy and the resultant detrimental impacts on flooding, density, and infrastructure that has forever altered our way of life.

Many also believe it foretells further political change in 2026…

Let’s hope so.

For now, the Cult of Mediocrity lives on – and it will continue unabated until enough Volusia County voters come to the realization that the truth is being manipulated each election cycle for the sole purpose of protecting and promoting the very lucrative status quo.

Let’s hope Chairman Brower’s important victory sends a clear message across the width and breadth of Volusia County that there is some shit We, The Little People won’t eat – and long-suffering taxpayers will no longer accept the greed-crazed profit motives of a few over the quality of life of exiting residents. 

Quote of the Week

“For example, the Flagler School Board prohibits public speakers from addressing board members or anyone but the chair by name, or–as do all local municipal boards–from directing a comment to anyone but the board chair, or from mentioning staffers by name. In other words, happy talk is ok, critical talk is not, the same way that boards approve of applause during happy occasions but ban it when they don’t want a speaker applauded. That’s content discrimination. It’s rampant at our local board meetings.

The court found those rules unconstitutional, especially since no board applies them when a speaker is lavishing praise on a board member or a staffer. The court ridiculed the prohibition on naming staffers. In Brevard, echoing similar and frequent censoring by current and past chairs in Flagler, the chair stopped one speaker with this Soviet-styled rebuke after the speaker mentioned an employee: “You’re putting their information out there in the public and it’s not yours to share.” Only at such board meetings is public information and names often documented in meeting materials considered “not yours to share.”

“Not only does this policy against personally directed speech not advance the goals that the Board claims it serves,” the court ruled, “it actively obstructs a core purpose of the Board’s meetings—educating the Board and the community about community members’ concerns. If a parent has a grievance about, say, a math teacher’s teaching style, it would be challenging to adequately explain the problem without referring to that math teacher. Or principal. Or coach. And so on. Likewise when a parent wishes to praise a teacher or administrator.

Such communications are the heart of a school board’s business, and the ill-defined and inconsistently enforced policy barring personally directed speech fundamentally impedes it without any coherent justification.”

Meetings may get tense, “But that is the price of admission under the First Amendment.”

–Pierre Tristam, FlaglerLive!, “Speech Codes at Flagler School Board and Palm Coast Council Are Now Illegal, Thanks to Moms for Liberty,” Friday, October 25, 2024

Last month, while most of us were busy cleaning up from Hurricane Milton and sorting through the inherent nastiness of “election season,” a federal appeals court ruled on an important constitutional challenge by the group Moms for Liberty against certain public participation policies of the Brevard County School Board. 

According to reports, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that policies targeting “abusive,” “obscene” and “personally directed” speech violated the First Amendment.

This important ruling has far-reaching implications for dictatorial edicts and subjective “rules of decorum” that elected boards, commissions, and councils often use for political insulation, a draconian means of silencing the fury of angry constituents seeking redress of grievances. 

In my view, our democratic processes work best when vigorous debate allows the truth to emerge – which is why the United States Constitution places such emphasis on protecting our inalienable right to free speech – allowing the competition of ideas to elevate the best solutions, resulting in informed and inclusive public policy. 

For far too long citizens in Volusia County and elsewhere have been told by petty politicians that their perspectives on the issues are wrong – or that we lack the capacity to understand the intricacies of things like impact fees and frivolous spending that has nothing to do with improving essential services and public infrastructure.    

The fact is, we live in a time and place where elected officials sit stone-faced on their gilded perch – gazing down on their subjects, placing stringent limitations on the public’s right to be involved in decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods – hiding behind one-sided “civility ordinances” while obstinately refusing to communicate, explain decisions, or listen to the fervent pleas of those they serve.   

Recently, I watched a Volusia County Council meeting where the acting chair repeatedly interrupted citizens as they respectfully addressed issues of concern to their elected officials, ordering that the speaker only direct comments to the chair, interjecting some ridiculous and bureaucratically contrived rule to dampen the foundational element of our democracy – citizen participation.

Bullshit. 

It seems the only time these monotonous marionettes break the fourth wall is when they are groveling for our vote (or a campaign contribution) during an election cycle – or whenever one of their extremely wealthy political benefactors enter the chamber.

When that happens, the mere presence the exalted insider renders the outcome painfully obvious as their obsequious hirelings preen and posture to the delight of their well-heeled masters…

As a result, citizen apathy reigns.

Knowing the deck is stacked against them, John & Jane Q. Public are no longer willing to take time off from work to attend public meetings, voice an opinion, or participate in their government – especially in an atmosphere where their thin-skinned elected representatives have made it clear that even constructive criticism is out-of-line.

The foundational principle of our representative democracy is that all power is derived from the will of the people. 

Go on – speak your mind, demand answers, hold those who accept public funds to serve in the public interest accountable – and do it fearlessly, boldly, and with civic purpose. 

Silence is complicity.  

Kudos to the 11th U.S. District Court of Appeals for striking a wide-ranging blow for our essential right to free and unfettered speech. 

And Another Thing!

“The first casualty of war is truth.”

–Sen. Hiram Warren Johnson, 1917

Many believe that the death of the American Dream – the end of our national post-war optimism – began with the death of President John F. Kennedy and the still lingering questions of what actually happened that day in Dallas.

Others say our national trust in government began to crack in May 1960, when a U-2 “spy plane” was shot down by the former Soviet Union while conducting an aerial reconnaissance flight. 

Initially, the Eisenhower administration explained in a lengthy release to the American people that a “civilian weather research aircraft” had gone missing after the pilot reported “oxygen difficulties.” 

The well-crafted cover-up lasted about a week – right up to the second Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev paraded the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, into the public eye – along with parts of the U-2’s surveillance equipment taken from the crash…

While the need for secrecy and sensitivity was understandable, many were shocked that for the first time their government was caught in such a baldfaced fib to the American public. 

Regardless, our collective trust in those institutions we once held sacrosanct in this country has been on a downward trajectory for decades.

According to a 2023 opinion poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, just 22% of respondents reported that they “trust the federal government to do what’s right “most of the time” or “just about always.”   By contrast, in 1958, when the National Election Study asked the question, some 73% of American’s affirmed their trust in government… 

Now, six decades on, we live in a time of overwhelming cynicism in those institutions we once placed our trust in – government, the media, what many believe is a weaponized judicial system, the corruption of our democratic processes – made worse by political polarization, a politicized press, the misinformation firehose of social media, the emergence of “artificial intelligence,” etc., etc.  

In my view, this election cycle brought a new low in carefully crafted disinformation campaigns and the use of outright lies in the political process. 

Not exactly a new concept.

For instance, at present, one million Floridian’s legally use marijuana for medicinal purposes, with millions more actively using the substance illicitly, and still more who have experimented with it at some point in their lives. 

Yet, throughout the campaign cycle, we repeatedly saw popular elected sheriffs in uniform, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, doctors, politicians, and other once trusted figures who looked us square in the eye from our television screen and openly lied to us about adult-use marijuana – such as the ridiculous blather of how if the unsuccessful Amendment 3 had passed (it almost did) – Cheech and Chong would be openly smoking dope inside restaurants, stadiums, and theme parks…  

Most Floridian’s understood that the proposed constitutional amendment did nothing to weaken or overturn clean air regulations that already prohibit smoking in public spaces – yet that is exactly what those fearmongers who opposed the measure wanted us to believe.  

It worked.  Although Florida voters overwhelmingly said “Yes” to adult-use recreational marijuana – the measure failed to reach the 60% legislatively imposed threshold required to pass.   

But how will those authority figures who openly told us falsehoods ever command our trust again?

With the proposed amendment commanding over 55.9% of the vote – that’s a statewide total of 5,934,139 votes – was defeating legalized weed worth their sacred personal integrity?

Now, many are questioning whose bottom line these powerful politicians are supporting – controlled, regulated, and taxed marijuana producers – or the Mexican drug cartels? 

More important, why?

So, for now, the State of Florida and our myopic law enforcement apparatus will continue to do the same thing over-and-over while expecting a different result? 

What do you think – are we “winning the war” on illicit marijuana in your community?

Look, I am a realist – a pragmatic seeker of that which is real and possible – and I tend to dismiss those who live in some chimerical fantasyland created by those who stand to profit and parroted by elected officials who have been bought and paid for by those same special interests. 

For me, authenticity has always been infinitely more fascinating (and elusive) than political smoke and mirrors.  Perhaps because the truth is such a rare and precious commodity in modern life, I tend to critically question everything…   

My life experience, which includes graduating magna cum laude from the prestigious Institut des Coups Durs, has taught me that things are never quite as good – or bad – as we think they are.

But this inquisitive personality trait has made me hyper-suspicious of politicians, magicians, and snake oil salesmen (sorry for the redundancy) who spin the truth and use deceptive persuasion, half-truths, and exaggerated sleight-of-hand to create an alternate reality that, over time, we have come to accept as fact.

Now that the hype and horseshit of the election season is over, please don’t let your guard down.  

I encourage everyone who pays taxes and lives on this increasingly claustrophobic salty piece of land we share to remain vigilant, demand that our elected officials work collegially and cooperatively in our best interests, drop the obstructionism, political bullying, and one-upmanship to find answers to the disastrous effects of insatiable greed on our collective quality of life.

Demand they stop the political gaslighting and speak the truth.

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the news and newsmakers of the day who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life or detracted from it in some significant way…

Waterlogged Residents of Edgewater vs. City Engineer Randy Coslow

Safety experts who study mishaps speak of the “accident chain” – the series of contributing factors that end in an adverse outcome.  The thought being, if at any point leading up to the disaster a link was broken by sound decisions and intervention, catastrophe could have been averted.

By any metric, the recurring disaster resulting from overwhelmed infrastructure and development-induced flooding is a tragedy of epic proportions.   

Throughout Volusia County, residents and business owners are now routinely faced with the destructive effects of floodwater as gravity inexorably pulls it from elevated and impervious new developments into lower lying existing neighborhoods. 

Few places have been harder hit that the waterlogged citizens of Edgewater… 

You don’t need to be an expert on disaster theory to understand that there are elected and appointed officials – people who accept public funds to serve in the public interest – who have intentionally weakened or ignored environmental safeguards, concurrency requirements, density regulations, and best practices for stormwater retention and growth management so influential developers could increase profits by slashing, burning, filling, and elevating wetlands, pine scrub, and aquifer recharge areas.

The consequences of ‘fill and build’ construction which changes the topography of the land were undoubtedly known to civil engineers and “growth management” experts.  For years, the United States Geological Survey and environmentalists have warned that as development and impervious surfaces increase severe flooding events occur with greater frequency.

This isn’t rocket surgery… 

In my view, that makes what has been permitted by certain local government officials’ willful negligence.

As evidence of that, for the past twenty years, entrenched bureaucrats like Volusia’s Growth and Resource Management Director Clay Ervin, have paid cheap lip service to “smart growth” concepts and sustainability practices by hosting timewasting dog-and-pony shows complete with droning PowerPoints, useless “summits” and politically insulating “steering committees.”

Yet nothing of substance ever happens in terms of smart growth practices, sustainability, environmental protection, or resilience. 

That’s called strategic procrastination, and it has successfully put time and distance between regulations to control malignant sprawl and the aggressive profit motives of influential real estate developers’ intent on filling every square foot of available space with more zero lot line cracker boxes “…starting in the $300’s.”

In my view, Mr. Ervin and others like him did exactly as they were told by their superiors, establishing a culture favorable for rubber stamping development.  Now, existing residents of Volusia County and beyond are paying the horrible price for the bureaucracy’s ability to run interference while looking the other way. 

But one thing is certain – you can bet your bottom dollar that both Ervin and County Manager George “The Wreck” Recktenwald – will receive another hefty pay increase this year.

Just like clockwork…

In the City of Edgewater, sodden homeowners are beginning to look beyond cause and effect. 

Now, they want those responsible for the piss poor decisions, laxity, and faulty engineering that has repeatedly destroyed their properties held to account. 

Last week, reporter Brenno Carillo writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal explained how some Edgewater residents feel set upon by the very official who should be mitigating active and future flooding risk:

“The city of Edgewater is considering a third-party investigation into City Engineer Randy Coslow after some residents accused him of intentionally allowing their homes to flood from Hurricane Milton.

Residents voiced their concerns during Monday’s City Council meeting — the first after the storm.

Kimberly Penny, a resident of Kumquat Drive in the Gaslight Square subdivision, relayed her experience with flooding in her home, which has happened twice in the past few years.

“Each time, the time, the emotional, physical and financial toll is overwhelming,” Penny said. “Not just for me but for so many of us living here.”

In September, just minutes into a special meeting, the Edgewater City Council summarily fired former City Manager Glenn Irby to the applause of soggy residents demanding answers to continuing flooding in Florida Shores and elsewhere. 

Perhaps Mr. Coslow should have taken out his slide rule and gauged the handwriting on the wall? 

The allegations brought by members of the community against Mr. Coslow are alarming…

According to the News-Journal, “Penny said “there is growing suspicion that Randy Coslow … may be retaliating against citizens who have voiced concerns and criticisms.”

She said Coslow was responsible for closing the grate to her home with silt fencing ahead of the storm, “and caused my home to hold water and flood yet again.”

Whoa.

Another resident suggested the lack of citizen confidence in Coslow is due to the “…waste of taxpayer money, lack of services, and attitudes and disrespect to the citizens by a certain city employee.”

To their credit, Edgewater’s man-child Mayor Deizel Depew and several Council members have agreed to explore a third-party investigation into allegations that Coslow targeted vocal residents. 

For now, Interim City Manager Jeff Thurman has said he would “pursue” the idea.

You bet your ass he will…or meet the same fate as Irby.    

Now is the time for transparency in Edgewater and elsewhere as taxpayers begin to look beyond their clueless elected officials and demand that those who hold the titles, call themselves “experts,” and demand exorbitant salaries and benefits are held to account. 

In my view, residents are right to demand answers for the effects of habitually deferring repair and replacement funding, the lack of utilities concurrency, our horribly failed “hurt here/help there” wetland mitigation bank strategy, impotent impact fees, and the relentless rubber stamping of development based on “staff recommendations” that is now destroying their property values – and their quality of life…

Can Brown & Brown Save Downtrodden Downtown Daytona?

I’ve preached this vocabulary lesson for years, but any denizen of Florida’s “Fun Coast” is familiar with the word dichotomy.   

Because it represents our collective reality.

The word defines a “stark division or contrast between two things that are opposed or entirely different,” the partition of a whole into sets or subclasses, something completely dissimilar.

When you point out a dichotomy, you draw an unmistakable distinction between two things:

Yin/yang, love/hate, night/day, micro/macro, public/private, rich/poor, objective/subjective, east/west Volusia, Old Daytona/New Daytona.

A duality.  Polar opposites.

While reading an excellent piece by The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s business editor Clayton Park entitled, “Brown & Brown buys a huge chunk of downtown Daytona; Here’s what they bought and why,” I was reminded of the glaring differences that separate old/new Daytona Beach – the optimism and investment on LPGA’s “Boomtown Boulevard” – and what many believe is the decades of strategic blight and intentional neglect that has placed Downtrodden Downtown Daytona in the bargain basement bin in terms of commercial real estate prices…

According to the report, last week, Brown & Brown “…announced its $10 million purchase of the seven contiguous commercial properties known as “Burgoyne Village” that takes almost the entire block bordered by Bay Street on the north, North Beach Street on the east and Palmetto Avenue on the west.”

Considering that the e-commerce behemoth Amazon recently paid “nearly $393.9 million to acquire its yet-to-open five-story 2.8 million-square-foot robotics fulfillment center at 2519 Bellevue Ave. in Daytona Beach” – a warehouse that sits on what was once a vacant cow pasture – and ranked 10^th on the News-Journal’s “Top Ten Biggest Real Estate Deals of 2024” (just behind the August sale of a “small” DeLand office/warehouse building) – I’d say J. Hyatt and the Boys got a hell of a deal… 

Real estate opportunities like that never come my way – but regardless of the who, what, when, where, why, and how Brown & Brown’s subsidiary “Beach Street New Horizons LLC” acquired damn near an entire city block of commercial properties – the heart of the Halifax area’s traditional downtown – for $10 million, the purchase represents a chance for substantive change to the blight and ‘down at the heels’ feel that has hampered revitalization for generations.

In my view, the “renaissance” we were all promised when the glass-and-steel monstrosity that is the Brown & Brown headquarters – and the now complete “Brown Esplanade” – hasn’t materialized as quickly as the hype would have had us believe. 

That’s okay.  We’re used to that.

Let’s hope Brown & Brown continues to use its significant resources to acquire and redevelop large swaths of Downtown Daytona to expedite the much-needed revival of this historic district.

Piecemeal projects aren’t working.    

Look, I admit – if Brown & Brown put up the cash to purchase the block, they can do whatever they please, but I think most will agree, Downtown Daytona is one of those places near and dear to the heart of any resident of a certain age who grew-up shopping there…

That said, my hope is that J. Hyatt will be open to a community charrette – a process which will allow residents, entrepreneurs, and stakeholders a say in “what will be” as the area begins its rebirth.

As I travel around, I’ve noticed that those places where I want to return all had sense-of-place initiatives built into the regeneration of the community – an exclusive civic identity – intentional placemaking that took advantage of local assets and potential. 

That begins with comprehensive planning – where private investors collaborate with visionary professional design and planning firms (getting those stuck-in-the-mud government obstructionists out of the mix) – to develop unique mixed-use infill projects which incorporate the areas historic attributes and encourage a more inviting and walkable city center that improves urban vitality. 

Ultimately, input from all stakeholders helps form a collective strategic vision – an aggregate conception – leading to designs that draw people back to visiting and living downtown, bolstered by complementary creative and entertainment districts that repurpose existing façades to house galleries, eateries, and eclectic businesses with artistic leanings while supporting the interrelationship of existing tenets with a proven commitment to the areas prosperity.    

In my view, the comparative experience between the economic progress and civic revitalization of carefully restored places like Winter Park, Thomasville, Georgia, Charleston, or Downtown DeLand – and the chronic stagnation that permeates much of the Halifax area – remains palpable to residents and visitors alike.    

Frankly, we should be able to dream bigger than the boring, predictable, same ol,’ same ol’ cookie cutter crap that now blankets most of LPGA Boulevard over in “New Daytona” – a placeless hodge-podge that traded the all-important sense of community for sticks-and-glue apartments and more ugly strip centers…  

Time will tell.

It the short-term, we can look forward to more than 600 “market rate” apartments downtown (with a smattering of “workforce housing” units thrown in to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy about it.) 

Yaaaawn…  Excuse me, sorry.

Unfortunately, our ‘powers that be’ have proven repeatedly they don’t give two-shits what the unwashed hoi polloi have to say – especially when it comes to crafting our collective future.

Let’s hope this unique opportunity is different. 

Pssst, Florida Legislators…Growth Didn’t Pay for Itself

The incestuous relationship between many Florida politicians and the deep-pocketed real estate development industry that fuels their campaigns has now painted their constituents into a sopping wet corner.

Last year, an investigation by USA Today determined that some 42% of Florida lawmakers have occupations or sources of income directly tied to the real estate industry – not to mention the millions in campaign contributions received by hand-select candidates at all levels of government from developers, investors, and realtors.  

Thanks to the political influence that massive contributions naturally buy, greed-crazed developers have been granted carte blanche to build across the width and breadth of the state, resulting in rampant flooding of existing homes, ecological destruction, gross overcrowding, and the resultant impacts on local transportation infrastructure, public utilities, and essential services.   

Perhaps the most pernicious aspect of this pay to play scheme has been repeat legislation that whittles away at the concept of “home rule” – limiting local government’s ability to control growth and development in their community.

Utilizing what some watchdogs call “legalized bribery,” developers have effectively suppressed impact fees, gutted local growth management regulations, attempted to shield themselves from the consequences of construction defects, skewed the concept of “property rights” (while ignoring yours and mine), disregarded concurrency requirements, and permitted environmentally destructive slash/burn/fill land clearing, all to facilitate more, more, more development without any consideration of the long-term effects.  

Now that the fallacy that “growth pays for itself” has been exposed as a gross and dangerous fraud – it is time for complicit Florida legislators to accept responsibility and do something about it.

In the view of many, it is time for the state of Florida to assist struggling municipalities with direct funding for infrastructure upgrades – to include stormwater management and public utilities – essential services that have been overwhelmed by the malignant sprawl facilitated by unfunded and burdensome legislative mandates that always benefit the profit motives of gluttonous developers.  

I’m not talking about some trickledown program administered by Volusia County who will suck the pool dry with “administrative costs” and byzantine foot-dragging processes as it uses the funds to expand the bloated bureaucracy while the cities clamor for the dregs…  

In my view, the actions of state legislators to line the pockets of their industry and political benefactors has left many Floridians feeling helpless and disoriented while local elected officials are left handcuffed by state decrees without a means of controlling the destiny of their communities. 

Now that we know the true and devastating cost of growth, it is time for those who helped get us into the mess to help get us out. 

Quote of the Week

“When the News-Journal met with Ormond Beach mayoral candidate Susan Persis, it was over a Starbucks beverage. When the paper met with her opponent Jason Leslie, he had wolfed down some lunchtime Taco Bell while manning his early voting tent.

The race is a study in contrasts, with Persis as the consummate insider and member of the local political elite, and Leslie, an outsider from New Jersey who says his perspective puts him in a better spot to see the city’s problems.

Inside versus outside

Persis, 69, is a retired school principal who served on the Ormond Beach City Commission since 2018. She has lived in Ormond Beach for the last 35 years and the Volusia County area for most of her life, having graduated from Seabreeze High School. Her husband Carl, a Volusia County School Board member, was mayor of Ormond Beach from 1999 to 2003.

“I’m a local. I was born and raised here, so I know that community. I know the culture. I know the climate of Ormond Beach and even the surrounding Daytona Beach area,” Persis said. “This guy has been here three years. He’s from New Jersey and he doesn’t understand how we work in Ormond Beach.” 

–Ormond Beach Mayoral Candidate Susan Persis, as quoted by reporter Mark Harper writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Ormond Beach City Commissioner Susan Persis faces newcomer Jason Leslie in mayor’s race,” Halloween, 2024

Inside versus outside…. 

Once again, reporter Mark Harper hits the nail on the head – calling local elections in this foul season what they are – an age-old battle between those civic, financial, and social elite on the “inside,” and the rest of us rubes who are forced to stand outside the closed political portcullis straining to see into the inner-sanctum where the real public policy decisions are made.

A “study in contrasts,” indeed.

In Ms. Persis’ world (which looks nothing like yours or mine) she deserves to be elevated to the mayor’s seat not on merit, but by osmosis.

Because that’s the way things “work” around here.  When you kiss the right asses, rub elbows with the influential donor class long enough, go along, get along, and prove your worth to those powerful few who control everything but the ebb and flow of the Atlantic tide here on the “Fun Coast” – you are naturally rewarded with a seat at the table.

I mean, we can’t have some Jersey transplant coming in here and upsetting the balance of power with a new vision, ideas, and insights, now, can we? 

That just won’t do…

In the view of many learned political observers much smarter than me, it is inevitable that those exalted members of Volusia County’s “local political elite” will ultimately be hoist on their own petard – ousted by newcomers who have settled in massive subdivisions like Margaritaville, Mosaic, and others that current elected officials rubber stamped – and now form substantial voting blocs who will ultimately want their own representation.

And they don’t give a Tinker’s damn about some perennial politicians antiquated political pedigree.

Perhaps Ms. Persis should understand that this is what happens when the Frankenstein’s Monster of uncontrolled sprawl inevitably turns on those who foolishly created it… 

And Another Thing!

Veteran watchers of the Wild and Woolly World of politics and governance here on Florida’s “Fun Coast” know we get our most unobstructed view of those weird relationships and murky behind the curtain machinations during times of transition – never more obvious than in the waning days of hotly contested races…   

Earlier this week, social media was abuzz with the news that within days of his primary loss to incumbent Volusia County Chair Jeff Brower – “Car Guy” Randy Dye made a well-timed $5,000 personal donation to the Republican Executive Committee of Volusia – who, in September (and some believe in return) took a controversial vote to support Dye by excluding Brower from the “official” Republican voter guide.

Yeah.  I know.

From the “Politics makes strange bedfellows” file, I found it interesting that billionaire local businessman J. Hyatt Brown – who is listed by multiple sources as a Democrat – has donated $5,000 to Dye’s campaign both personally and through entities he controls – and another $10,000 to the RECV… 

Guess it never hurts to cover all bases, eh?

In a move The Daytona Beach News-Journal later called “potentially difference-making,” the tyrannical RECV Chairman Paul Deering invoked something called “Rule 8” – which allows a County Executive Committee to “endorse, certify, screen, or recommend a Republican candidate in a contested Republican primary, or a registered Republican in a nonpartisan election (including judicial races where it is legally permissible)” – essentially shunning those Republicans who fail to receive the anointment of cliquish party leaders. 

Just like that, the fix was in.

Apparently in the Kingdom of Paul Deering, all Republicans are equal – but those willing to pay to play are more equal than others…

Not a good look for “Car Guy” Randy Dye this close to the nut-cutting hour. 

Many inside the Republican Executive Committee and out have openly accused Deering of using the Rule 8 endorsement to ensure Dye – the darling of Volusia’s elite Donor Class – received preferential positioning on the voter guide, while excluding and marginalizing fellow Republican Jeff Brower, who handily won the primary with 42% of the vote to Dye’s 28%.  

I’ve seen some shit in my day, but the brazenness of this screw-job is unprecedented…

According to the News-Journal report, “Jeff won the majority of the … primary votes,” Tim Ryan, a precinct committeeman and former REC treasurer, wrote in a text. “The division and anger is unbelievable.”

On Wednesday, a windy op/ed appeared in the News-Journal describing how growth and development are inevitable, “…and NIMBY is just not the real world,” before gushing about all that Randy Dye “offers.” 

The blatant campaign piece failed to mention that it was penned by Tom Coriale – who is listed as the Vice Chairman of the Republican Executive Committee of Volusia… 

Now, there is growing back-alley whispering of an old-fashioned coup d’état – which means Deering and Company’s days at the helm of the powerful RECV may be numbered.

It’s about time. 

Let’s face it, even partisan hard-liners oppose this internecine throat cutting of an identified primary winner in the leadup to a general election, knowing well the same fate awaits them (or their candidate) should they fall victim to Deering’s legendary vindictiveness… 

The fact is politics in 2024 is a blood sport.

Why?

Because elections have profound consequences – especially for those who have paid handsomely for their lucrative spot in the political pecking order… 

For instance, on Tuesday, Chairman Brower held a press conference at the City Island courthouse in Daytona Beach to announce that he plans to call for a temporary countywide moratorium on further development until a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy can be developed.

“I’m asking for us all to come together, get on the same side of the desk and do the morally responsible thing and answer the people’s demands for action.  “It’s time to put action behind words. It’s time to stop the obstructionism that prevents anything from moving forward.”

An appeal for unity.  A call for action over hot air – an impassioned plea to move forward with lasting solutions to a universal threat.

That’s when the “Old Guard’s” fangs came out…    

During the presser, high-profile Dye supporters – to include Daytona Beach City Commissioner Stacy Cantu, Volusia County District 3 Councilman Danny Robins, and At-Large Representative Jake Johannson – went on the attack. 

Look, by any metric Danny Robins personifies political kabuki in its worst form. 

His hyper-dramatic, long-winded, time-wasting, and nonsensical stream of consciousness oratories from the dais are legendary – and “Jake the Snake” Johannson has proven himself a shameless animatron wholly controlled by special interests from day one…

Then, in keeping with the choreographed plan of attack, Mayor Derrick Henry took to social media, to excoriate Brower, calling his announcement a “campaign stunt.”

Really?

Coming from someone who’s performed more political stunts than Dar Robinson, that’s rich… 

Even Nancy Keefer, president and CEO of the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce, was convinced to wade into dangerous political territory when she publicly put the boots to Chairman Brower in the News-Journal, “If you’re stopping things completely, you’re … using an elephant to kill a flea,” she said.

With piles of moldy carpet and flood-damaged furniture still piled on the streets of Volusia County, something tells me that’s not going to age well for Keefer and the Daytona Regional Chamber…

Of course, Mr. Dye followed up with a lame stump speech listing all the reasons (read: contrived talking points) why even a short-term moratorium isn’t possible.

In other words, the “M” word went through powerful pro-growth and development circles like an ice water enema – and their handmaidens did exactly what they were told by their political benefactors. 

In my view, these sitting elected officials who came down on the wrong side of the single most galvanizing issue of our time should realize that once a leaky ship sets sail – it’s almost impossible to get off before it sinks…    

In 2020, when Brower soundly defeated an entrenched and well-funded “establishment” (a media moniker, not mine) candidate with a citizen mandate of substantive change – those bought-and-paid-for political marionettes on the dais of power turned their sights on marginalizing his campaign promises, openly shitting on the will of Volusia County voters – systematically blocking Brower’s initiatives at every turn, all while painting him as an “ineffectual” loser.

What’s changed?

Based on Mr. Brower’s impressive primary win, it appears an increasing number of Volusia County voters suffering the ruinous effects of unchecked growth on their quality of life haven’t forgotten this stalling and political sabotage…   

As election day grows near, Volusia’s entrenched “Old Guard” – and those stalwarts of the status quo who do their bidding are rightfully nervous – chilled by the thought that We, The Little People have finally decided that protecting our threatened environment and already overburdened infrastructure outweigh the insatiable wants and whims of influential developers with a chip in the game.

Vote your conscience.

Elections have consequences.   

That’s all for me.  If you haven’t taken advantage of early voting, please go to the polls on Tuesday! 

And take a friend with you…

This one’s important.

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the news and newsmakers of the day who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life or detracted from it in some significant way…

Biketoberfest 2024    

A fact of life on Florida’s fabled “Fun Coast,” is that many of our neighbors are dependent on the feast or famine nature of the Halifax Area’s artificial economy – still very much reliant on “Special Events” for their livelihoods – while much of our core tourist area remains mired in blight, dilapidation, and botched opportunities.  

A place where some red-faced store owners still apologize to tourists for the condition of the place… 

Earlier this year in an excellent article by investigative journalist Eileen Zaffiro-Kean writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, entitled “‘We’ve gone to the bottom’: Does Daytona’s party-central image scare off investors?” we learned the tragic reality facing many Beachside small businesses: 

“A good portion of Main Street businesses only come alive for about a week during Biketoberfest in October and two weeks during Bike Week in March. Those businesses can afford to go dark for the rest of the year because they make huge amounts of money during the two biker parties.

Many nearby empty lots used for biker event vendors and parking also sit empty for most of the year and then burst to life during Bike Week and Biketoberfest.

“Main Street has not made any of the leaps we would have hoped,” said Mayor Derrick Henry. “Part of the problem is people make money off the way it is now. We’re not opposed to Bike Week, but I want to see Main Street thrive.”

When?

Earlier this year, the Main Street Merchant’s Association made an impassioned plea to those mute Gargoyles on the Volusia County Council asking that beach driving from International Speedway Boulevard to Auditorium Boulevard be reopened as a means of supporting beleaguered shops, restaurants, and bars in the core tourist district.   

Per usual, the idea of trying something new and innovative was ignored – which brings us back to our interminable reliance on “Special Events.”  Unfortunately, for the financial security of many, these disruptive boom-bust bacchanalias must roll regardless of the condition of our community, infrastructure, or residents…   

As a shiftless retiree, most days, by the time you have finished a grilled cheese and bowl of tomato soup for lunch, I’m already three cocktails deep. 

My one rule is that I never drink and drive, which makes me solely reliant on my long-suffering wife and close friends to haul my inebriated arse from point A to B safely.   

Late last week, I was riding with a friend enroute from Barker’s View HQ to my favorite watering hole – the omnipresent roar of Biketoberfest motorcycles radiating from North Beach Street – when I heard the faint sounds of AC/DC wafting over the drone.

Continuing through my north Ormond neighborhood, the strains of Angus Young’s screaming guitar got louder as we navigated receding water, the massive debris piles from Hurricane Milton still moldering in and out of the roadway – logs, leaves, fencing slats, and rotting vegetative waste stacked high (dangerous eyesores we are now told might not be fully collected before the first of the year?) – with one large mound of brown palm fronds and the remnants of a toppled Oak obscuring motorists’ view of the opposing lane. 

Then…

“IT’S A LONG WAY TO THE TOP IF YOU WANNA ROCK-N-ROLL!”

Out of nowhere, a speeding Harly-Davidson – the bike’s onboard stereo blasting at concert pitch – weaved around the obstructing debris pile, pulling directly into our traffic lane, eyeball-to-bloodshot eyeball, closing so fast I could see the abject horror on the face of the bearded and leather-clad rider.

Whoa!  

Instantaneously, my friend braked hard and deftly swerved right – the now leaning motorcycle threading the needle, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision by a fraction on the left – a hard, fast, and frightening lesson on the perils of inviting tens-of-thousands of motorcyclists to party hardy in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster… 

I get it.  We do what we must to survive. 

In my view, stability and long-term prosperity begins by getting government (at all levels) out of the way and allowing those actually in the arena – entrepreneurial investors who have put their blood, sweat, tears, and money into building a business – to use their experience and expertise to blaze a path forward and turn things around, rather than continue to pour untold millions in public funds into attracting the next panacea project…

Yeah.  I know.

Here’s hoping everyone who feeds their family on the proceeds of Biketoberfest got everything they needed, and that our ‘powers that be’ finally realize that the Daytona Beach Resort Area needs a year-round draw, an inviting atmosphere, and a break from the stagnant status quo if we hope to maintain our important hospitality industry here on the “World’s Most Famous Beach.”     

Aura-Aero

Strike up the Volusia County All-Star Goodtime Band!

Happy Days are Here Again!  Again! 

Last week, everyone who is anyone in Volusia County’s public and private elite were falling all over themselves with the announcement that French hybrid-electric aircraft manufacturer Aura-Aero announced its intention to build a 500,000-square-foot manufacturing and assembly plant at the Daytona Beach International Airport.

Once operational, the manufacturing facility will create more than 1,000 of those “high-paying jobs” we are always promised whenever the next big thing comes to town…   

In an informative article by the News-Journal’s Clayton Park, we learned that Daytona Beach took the prize over Flagler County after the obligatory “economic incentive” cake walk.

“Volusia County offered $500,000 in performance-based incentives the company would receive only if it makes good on its pledge to create 1,000 jobs paying an average of $72,000 a year. Daytona Beach agreed to provide $100,000 in matching funds of that “Grow Volusia” incentive package.

The city sweetened the county’s bid further by offering a break on property taxes over six years worth a total of $3.58 million.

Flagler County offered an even more lucrative incentive package that would have paid Aura Aero $1 million annually for five years in the form of reimbursements on ad valorem taxes collected from the company as well as $650,000 or more a year based on the value of the plant’s equipment.”

And, friends and neighbors, that’s how you and I became investors in the nascent electric aircraft business… 

Now, I hate to be the proverbial turd in the punchbowl, so I’m going to assume our economic development sagamores at Team Volusia and that camara stellata over at the CEO Business Alliance (or any of the half-dozen other redundant “economic opportunity” agencies) did due diligence on our behalf before using our money to add more sugar to Aura-Aero’s cloyingly sweet “incentives” package? 

I’m asking.

Because, to the best of my knowledge, Aura-Aero’s initial prototypes – single-engine aircraft known as the INTEGRAL models – have yet to receive final FAA or EASA flightworthiness certification. 

Tragically, two test pilots lost their lives in the crash of an INTEGRAL R prototype in April 2022, a mishap European safety investigators later disturbingly attributed to “technical, organizational, and human causes…” 

Aura-Aero responded in a statement following the release of the accident report which read, in part:   

“The study of the events that led to the loss of the aircraft and crew results in several recommendations, some of which concern us.  Our own investigations had also led to the same conclusions, already taken into account for the development and production of the INTEGRAL R, INTEGRAL S, and INTEGRAL E aircraft.”

According to reports, flight testing of the INTEGRAL R variant resumed last year, 19 months after the fatal crash, and the company reports FAA certification is in the final stages.  

Although orders for a reported 570 units have already been placed for the company’s larger ERA (Electric Regional Aircraft) in both 19-seat passenger and cargo configurations – I’m not sure a prototype has yet been constructed. 

According to a report earlier this month at the industry site Aerotime, Aura-Aero “…is planning to fly a prototype of the ERA airliner by 2026.”  In my view, that sounds like an incredibly aggressive timeline… 

Look, I’m certainly not an aeronautical engineer, but the dates don’t add up to this uneducated rube, and one would think the “before 2030” estimated delivery date would put serious time constraints on testing and certification of the ERA models before production could begin on orders promised.     

But what do I know, eh? 

I’m sure Volusia County Manager George “The Wreck” Recktenwald and our “economic guru’s” who play fast and loose with our tax dollars have confirmed all of this well in advance of committing us to another multi-million-dollar corporate support package, right?

Sure they did…  

Former Volusia County Councilwoman Joie Alexander 1940-2024

Earlier this month, Joie Alexander, a universally respected paragon of Volusia County governance, volunteerism, and selfless service passed away at her home in Spruce Creek.  She was 84.    

Following a quarter-century of service with Volusia County Schools – including eight years as principal of Samsula Elementary School – Ms. Alexander sought public office, running against the late great Big John in what the Orlando Sentinel described in 2002 as “a two-fisted political brawl” for the ages. 

At the time, Ms. Alexander labeled Big John an “obstructionist,” while he accused Alexander of having been “recruited” by east Volusia developers seeking to oust him from office when he opposed spending millions in tax dollars on oceanfront development in Daytona Beach.

Figurative blows flew back and forth with each accusing the other of accepting campaign contributions from “big-money” interests… 

Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

When the heated contest was over, Ms. Alexander garnered 64 percent of the vote to Big’s 36 percent.  

Ultimately Ms. Alexander served admirably for eight years as the at-large member of the Volusia County Council – seven as vice chair – and two years as the District 3 councilmember, including service as a member of the Florida Association of Counties Board of Directors.

As could happen in times past, Big John and Ms. Alexander later became friends, and their collective efforts to ensure a brighter future for Volusia County remained a constant throughout their remarkable lives.

A moving obituary in The Daytona Beach News-Journal this week recounted Ms. Alexander’s significant leadership and contributions:

“Joie spent her retirement years giving back to the community. Joie’s extensive volunteer service included serving on the board of directors or committees of the following: Crime Stoppers of NE Florida, Florida’s Coast to Coast Chapter of the American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia/Flagler Counties (S.H.I.E.L.D. Award recipient in 2022), Daytona State College Women’s Center (Advisory Board), the United Way Women’s Initiative, the Bethune-Cookman University Mary McLeod-Bethune Status committee and Keep Daytona Beach Beautiful. She was a member of several civic and service-oriented groups such as the Rotary Club of Daytona Beach, the NAACP West Volusia Chapter, the Volusia County Women’s Network, the Civic League of the Halifax Area and the Halifax Health Associates. Many other local organizations also benefited greatly from her involvement.

Of Joie’s service over her decades to Volusia County, she once said, “Volunteering is a greater gift for the giver than the receiver. Volunteering gives you the opportunity to be an active part in improving lives.”

Words to live by from a dedicated servant-leader, gone too soon, whose wisdom and insight is needed now, more than ever.    

Thank you, Ms. Alexander.  We’re glad you passed our way…

Quote of the Week

“The Hand Avenue extension to Avalon Park won’t be used by Ormond Beach residents. Instead, the costly road and bridges will allow Daytona Beach Avalon Park residents to travel to and through Ormond Beach and return home. During the current two-year term, the Ormond Beach City Commission, with three new members, has not heard reports on the proposed Hand Avenue extension or updates on the Avalon Park water and sewer service impasse with Daytona Beach.

The 3,000 acres west of I-95 have a troubled history, and now the Avalon Park mega development will construct 7,878 homes, on lots engineered with truckloads of legal fill and excavations of massive retention ponds.

Funding a $100 million Hand Avenue east-west access for the Avalon Park Daytona homes is now a Volusia County obligation. The county agreements were approved with no estimated project cost, no defined funding from four levels of government, no citizen mandate, and no public input from the Ormond Beach City Commission. Meanwhile, long-neglected streets in unincorporated areas of the county remain in desperate need of repaving.

The $100 million Hand Avenue extension and bridges will waste taxpayer dollars to accommodate growth that will never pay for itself.”

–Former Ormond Beach City Commissioner Jeff Boyle, as excerpted from his op/ed in the Ormond Beach Observer, “My View: Hand Avenue extension bridges are not needed,” Monday, October 21, 2024

The rest of Mr. Boyle’s insightful thoughts on the costs, environmental impacts, and ulterior motivations as Volusia County (read: you and me) agree to pick up the estimated $100 million tab for extending Hand Avenue west from Ormond Beach, with a bridge over eight lanes of Interstate 95 and a second new bridge over the Tomoka River to accommodate Avalon Park can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/58mpx3js

In my view, Mr. Boyle’s cogent commentary tells a disturbing story of how (and why) the dominos were stacked – and the pernicious reasons our elected developer shills continue to perpetuate the myth that the Hand Avenue extension will relieve already crippling traffic congestion on Granada Boulevard/State Road 40 – knowing full well the extension that existing residents will pay for opens even more environmentally sensitive lands between I-95 and the Tomoka River for development.    

I found it interesting that on Wednesday, the Observer published a piece on the Frankensteinian animation of the monstrous Ormond Crossings as the “first amendment” for the massive mixed-use development comes before the Ormond Beach Planning Board next week…

According to the report, “The request also seeks to update the overall conceptual master plan for the residential part of Ormond Crossings, which once built out, could be composed of 2,500 homes.”

Insanity.

In my view, Mr. Boyle’s timely essay is a must-read for anyone concerned about the slow and agonizing death of our environment, sense of place, and quality of life in Ormond Beach and beyond…

And Another Thing!

Last week, as you and were navigating Milton debris still piled high on the shoulder of every side street in town – then grimaced and groaned through three cycles of a traffic signal on hyper-congested West Granada Boulevard – our ‘movers and shakers’ gathered at the exclusive Oceanside County Club to listen to Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington tell the chamber of commerce set how wonderful we all have it… 

In his final State of the City address – “Partners For Prosperity” – clearly a subliminal nod to his friends and campaign contributors in the development community, Hizzoner reminded us:

“This theme embodies the essence of what makes our city thrive, our ability to come together, collaborate and support one another in our shared pursuit of a prosperous future…”

Whatever that means.

During the posh luncheon, the Ormond Beach City Commission’s shining example of success was the proposed redesign of the I-95/US-1 interchange (a project just entering the ‘design phase’) which has, for the entirety of Mr. Partington’s tenure, rivaled East International Speedway Boulevard as the most uninviting, unkempt, and physically unattractive gateway to any community on the Eastern Seaboard from Newark to New Smyrna Beach…   

According to a report in the Ormond Beach Observer, “Once completed, it will significantly enhance the traffic flow and reduce congestion,” Commissioner Susan Persis said.

Construction of the new interchange is expected to begin in 2027, she said.”

Great.  Something to look forward to as a septuagenarian… 

At the risk of seeming unkind, neither Mr. Partington, nor his heir apparent, Susan Persis, are considered deep thinkers by most political watchers.  

In my experience, these perennial politicians aren’t problem solvers – and have proven time and again that they lack the mental capacity to understand multifaceted civic issues or the analytical ability to form complex solutions. 

But they possess the most coveted (and marketable) of political attributes – malleability – the flexibility to bend to the wants and whims of special interests, to go along and get along.   

Unfortunately, Partington and Persis are not alone when it comes to political pliability in Volusia County.

Now, after twenty-one years on the Ormond Beach City Commission, following his speech, Mayor Partington stepped down to complete what I am certain will be a successful run for the Florida House of Representatives District 28 seat. 

For reasons my pea brain can’t quite understand, “Fun Coast” voters have a weird way of rewarding bought-and-paid for political puppets by elevating them to higher office – then complain about why things never change…     

Bizarre. 

In most communities suffering the disastrous effects of our area’s “shove ten-pounds of shit into a five-pound bag” growth management strategy – elected officials who played the distracted referee routine while the out-of-control development that has slashed/burned greenspace, overburdened inadequate transportation infrastructure, outpaced utilities, and flooded homes and businesses – are publicly humiliated at the ballot box and drummed out of what’s left of their claustrophobic communities.   

Not here.

Earlier this week, already distracted residents sloshed through their front yards, collected their newspaper, and read a piece from The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s executive editor John Dunbar, who used his vast editorial talents to clean up Volusia County Chair candidate “Car Guy” Randy Dye’s massive $457,727.47 war chest by shamelessly name dropping a few of his “Rich & Powerful” donors:

“For example, Dye got a personal donation of $1,000 from J. Hyatt Brown, chairman of local insurance giant Brown & Brown Inc. Brown’s wife Cici also gave $1,000 and companies controlled by Brown gave another $3,000. Yes, this is a very wealthy man.”

Then, we got Editor Dunbar’s interpretation of “The rest of the story…”

“But there’s more to the story. Dye is on the board of trustees of the Museum of Arts & Sciences, which, over the years, has benefited greatly from the Browns’ generosity. The Browns recently announced they were giving upward of $150 million to the museum, a transformative gift, as The News-Journal recently reported.

If you are going to be on the Volusia County Council, this is a good man to know.”

By contrast, Mr. Dunbar described incumbent Chairman Jeff Brower this way:  

“As for Brower, he has been focusing lately on flood issues, especially in Edgewater.

His focus has been on slowing new development so it won’t cause flooding in older neighborhoods. And he opposes the construction of the fuel terminal near Ormond Beach. His critics say his heart is in the right place, but they haven’t seen much progress.

He is, however, but one vote on a governing body that has seven members.”

Maybe I’m hypersensitive to the near-constant skewing of the political playing field by those with a chip in the game, but it sounds like Mr. Dunbar is implying that while Dye gives generously of his time and rubs elbows with influential moguls and millionaires – Brower is frittering aimlessly with “flood issues” – or as most waterlogged residents refer it: 

The single most electrifying issue of our time – one that has galvanized Volusia County taxpayers into a growing grassroots movement to protect their homes, lives, and livelihoods from development-induced inundation under the battle cry, “Throw the bums out!”    

Unfortunately, I fear the takeaway for many of our apathetic neighbors will be:

“Oh good, I knew Randy Dye was just another altruistic do-gooder with powerful and incredibly wealthy friends, always giving of his time and talents to serve his fellow Fun Coasters.  Nothing to see here, folks, we can go back to sleep – never mind the roar of those bulldozers…”   

But what about us, “We, The Little People,” who don’t have rich and influential friends in high places?

Who looks out for us in the cloistered Halls of Power in DeLand?

Because it has become frighteningly clear that struggling residents without the wherewithal to purchase a chip in the game with massive campaign contributions have few friends on the Volusia County Council…

Read Mr. Dunbar’s interesting take here and form your own conclusions: https://tinyurl.com/4xy4yx3e

With early voting underway in Volusia County – please vote your conscience. 

This one’s important.

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the news and newsmakers of the day who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life or detracted from it in some significant way…

In Recognition of “The Helpers” (and the no-so helpful…)

We learn a lot about ourselves and our community – good and bad – during times like these. 

In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, as we continue the important process of assessing damage, restoring power to affected homes and businesses, cleaning up the mess, and returning a sense of “normalcy” – I want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who continue to help with recovery efforts.   

Times like these remind us of hometown pride, and the importance of small, nimble, and responsive local governments, and the civic reflex of neighbors helping neighbors…

Throughout the week, I have seen poignant examples of the care and compassion that defines the character of our communities; acts of selflessness that speak to our collective resilience and resourcefulness.

Earlier this week, it was refreshing (and infuriating) to see so many committed residents rise and address the Volusia County Council and their municipal governments to denounce the insanity of growth at all cost sprawl and the resultant development-induced flooding that has destroyed so many lives.  Openly calling out those developer shills on the dais by name – with many flooded homeowners demanding a moratorium on future growth until flooding and infrastructure concerns can be addressed. 

Truly heartwarming.

Other aspects weren’t so encouraging… 

For instance, just hours prior to Hurricane Milton’s arrival, many were outraged by a social media post from One Daytona “reminding” us rube’s that their parking lots and garage were for residents of the on-site apartment complex, tenants, and “customers while on-site only” – meaning, “don’t even think of moving your vehicle to their parking lot to keep it on high ground and out of harm’s way.”

I found that less than neighborly given that taxpayers in Volusia County and the City of Daytona Beach collectively bankrolled the project to the tune of $40 million in public funds… 

On second thought, I found it downright tone-deaf and insensitive to the needs of our community – help should be reciprocated – and I can assure One Daytona that my vehicle will never darken their parking lot again for any reason. 

Of course, I couldn’t help but laugh at the post-storm antics of certain petty politicians who always resort to their base instincts to campaign during an emergency (especially in an election year), completely oblivious to the horrible optics of peacocking while their weary constituents sit in their dark and flooded homes worrying about a thousand-and-one things – including what comes next when the foul water finally recedes…    

Given the dire circumstances, I cringe at the absurdity of D-list politicians having their photograph taken with C-list politicians, then posting their smiling visage on social media.  Preening and posing in official-looking embroidered polo shirts standing outside some time-wasting “briefing” that emergency managers hold to keep elected officials occupied and out-of-the-way while their constituents slog their waterlogged belongings to the curb.

Just once I wish these self-absorbed incompetents would realize that their role is establishing sound public policies and requiring engineering that can help mitigate the devastating effects of these events before the wind blows and the water starts to rise.   

Fortunately, the best of us shined brightly when the chips were down. 

I saw examples of resolute local elected and appointed officials up to their hips in floodwaters, physically helping constituents in dire need, filling sandbags, organizing grassroots volunteer work, authentically engaging with those in need, allowing emergency management officials the space and resources they need to perform their important work, and keeping their communities updated on recovery efforts and ways they can help.   

Good stuff.

During times of crisis, I have always taken comfort in a quote by the great Fred Rogers – better known as the beloved children’s television host Mister Rogers, who said:

“My mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.”

To all the helpers out there, please accept my sincere thanks and appreciation for your gallant service and generosity of spirit.  Your efforts bring optimism for a quick recovery from Hurricane Milton – and restores faith in our collective future here in Volusia County.

Volusia County Emergency Management

We Floridian’s are a resilient bunch – and those of us who have been here awhile understand that the events of last week will eventually come to all of us who live in the National Hurricane Center’s “Cone of Confusion.”

During my productive life, after years of preparation, study, and the accumulation of hard-earned practical experience, the Florida Emergency Preparedness Association bestowed the Professional Emergency Manager designation on me. 

It was a point of professional pride for this uneducated bumpkin.   

In addition to my law enforcement duties, I had ancillary responsibilities as my community’s Emergency Management Coordinator.  When I retired, I was honored to remain as a reserve police officer, assisting with emergency coordination during storms until I hung-up my spurs for good three years ago.

I miss it. 

No matter how much you learn about meteorological phenomena, I have always been awed by the incredible power and cruel efficiency of these extreme weather systems.

In my view, local first responders, utilities workers, public works employees, power restoration personnel, and the various specialized teams who went in harm’s way to save lives, secure shelters, reduce flooding, and maintain infrastructure are the true heroes of Milton.

Did everything go as planned? 

It never does. 

That is why professional emergency managers conduct a thorough “hotwash” – an immediate after-action review of an agency’s performance following a major emergency – as a means of identifying strengths, weaknesses, what needs to be improved, and who is responsible for making it happen.

That introspection can be humbling, but the “lessons learned” – best practices that are ultimately compiled into a comprehensive “After Action Report” – further the collective knowledge that helps avoid repeat mistakes when key personnel are tired or lose situational awareness during a similar incident.     

In the leadup to a hurricane, “confusion reigned” is not the lede you want to read in The Daytona Beach News-Journal. 

Unfortunately, that was exactly what was reported, and an accurate summation of a puzzling evacuation order issued as Hurricane Milton made its approach last week. 

In my view, there were many aspects of the Hurricane Milton preparation and response that VCEM got right – and those local professionals coordinating resources and providing operational and logistical support in the municipalities did an excellent job under difficult and dangerous circumstances.  

But there were several times during the preparation phase that I questioned the information that was pushed to the public from the Volusia County Emergency Operations Center – and elsewhere.

I wasn’t alone… 

For instance – last week, Volusia County issued an evacuation order for areas east of the Intracoastal Waterway, a directive that was later expanded to include a hodge-podge of areas east and west of the river – including one that (I think) may have included the Old Barker Place, which read “Residents east of Bulow Creek State Park and any locations east of U.S. 1 before it crosses the Tomoka River in Ormond Beach and Ormond-by-the-Sea…”

I still don’t know if that meant residents north or south of the Tomoka River Bridge…and neither did my neighbors. 

Then we learned the order was more of a suggestion, “encouraged but not required,” except for 21 properties in Wilber-by-the-Sea who were mandated to evacuate…    

Oddly, for reasons known only to him – the morning before Milton arrived, our local hospitality guru Bob Davis fired off a weird email to the News-Journal apparently countermanding the official beachside evacuation order.   

According to the News-Journal:

“The confusion started early Tuesday morning when Lodging & Hospitality Association President and CEO Bob Davis sent an email to the News-Journal and others saying that the evacuation order did not apply to everyone east of the Intracoastal Waterway.

His understanding was that it only applied to beachside residents who live in low-lying areas, campgrounds, manufactured homes, mobile homes, RV parks, and flood-prone areas. That was wrong. The actual county order says those folks are “encouraged” to relocate.”

I’ve got my suspicions as to why Mr. Davis issued his interpretation of the beachside evacuation order; you probably have yours. In my view, keeping profitable “heads in beds” is a sorry excuse for jeopardizing public safety…

As someone who has cultivated a position of trust in the community, in my view, Davis should stay in his lane – restrict his epistles to lodging and hospitality issues – and leave emergency management to the professionals. 

At this hour thousands of our neighbors throughout the region are still inundated by floodwater, and in need of physical, financial, and emotional support – and Volusia County residents have been assured help is coming from a variety of local, state, and federal sources. 

Overall, I’m giving Volusia County Emergency Management a “B+” for the preparation and response to Hurricane Milton – which is about as good as it gets. 

Now, let’s hope our elected officials on the Volusia County Council listen to the fervent pleas of their waterlogged constituents and begin the incredibly expensive process of mitigating further destruction, hardening utilities, and limiting overdevelopment before the next blow…   

Residents of Rural Volusia County

Outside of consuming copious numbers of Martinis and Marlboros – I have few “hobbies.”  Those nonsensical pastimes that retirees like me find to occupy the boredom of their idle hours following the excitement of our productive lives. 

The American Dream personified…   

In retirement, my home has become an elaborate all-inclusive support system for two spoiled dogs whose every comfort occupies my day – and I keep a ten-gallon freshwater aquarium with four hardy neon tetras.   

The small fishtank is something of a compromise with my long-suffering wife following the catastrophic failure of a 55-gallon saltwater tank that flooded our living room, carpet, walls, etc., resulting in messy and expensive repairs.

In my view, becoming a home aquarist – or better yet, teaching a child the hobby – is the best way to understand the symbiotic relationship of a healthy ecosystem.  The delicate balance between biological filtration, the nitrogen cycle, and the toxic effects of overcrowding and pollutants on the biome. 

Farmers and ranchers who live and earn their livelihoods in rural areas will tell you the same is true when the natural carrying capacity of the land is exceeded.  The inviolate ecological principle of maximal load – that habitat, water, and natural resources in a given area can only support a limited density of livestock, crops, or people.   

I was reminded of the interconnectedness of things while watching frightened residents approach their elected “representatives” on the Volusia County Council earlier this month – pleading with those stone-faced marionettes on the dais to consider a rural boundary charter amendment – something many believe is an effective means of protecting what remains of our countryside and agricultural lands from the steady creep of malignant sprawl.   

Frankly, it was frustrating to watch.  A classic exercise in futility. 

A maddening example of what happens when the serious concerns of claustrophobic property owners meet the immovable object of bureaucratic paralysis, lockstep conformity, and mediocrity – made worse by subservient elected officials dedicated to the greed-crazed wants and whims of their political benefactors.

One by one, Volusia County property owners approached the podium and cited examples of development-induced flooding, lost farm production, and the grave implications of unchecked growth and density on their quality of life.    

Never more evident than in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton… 

Some residents asked that those who have made their lives and livelihoods in rural and agricultural areas be appointed to an advisory committee and assist with the development and dimensions of the boundary amendment. 

What rural residents got in return was more of the same from those malleable perennial politicians practiced in the art of double-talk and strategic procrastination…

As usual, County Manager George “The Wreck” Recktenwald wants to maintain total control over the process, product, and narrative by keeping things inhouse (Read: Turning the planning over to those same bureaucratic jacklegs who got us in the mess in the first place…)

“We have the professionals here that will come up with alternatives,” Recktenwald said at the October 1 meeting. “We will put together some scenarios of what other people have done and how it’s been done in other places.”

Always protecting the status quo… 

Sad. 

In the grim aftermath of Hurricane Milton – and the widespread recurrent flooding many experienced before the storm – some believe we have already reached the carrying capacity of the land. 

Now, existing residents of certain municipalities are worried about growth that was approved years ago and has sat on the books like a latent malignancy waiting to come out of the ground with thousands of homes and millions of square feet of commercial space.    

Other pending insults, like the specter of Avalon Park and Ormond Crossings – gargantuan “City within a city” developments that will have a regional impact on transportation, water, utilities, emergency services, stormwater management, healthcare, schools, hospital access, and our quality of life – are slowly coming to life while our elected officials fritter away precious time.

In my view, we are witnessing the moral ambiguity of politics at its worst – the ability of ostensibly smart, civically engaged elected officials to ignore the basic principles of growth and resource management – relying on inside “experts” for cover while ignoring our cries for help, selling their political souls for a seat at the table, then strategically procrastinating while more, more, more obscene development makes its inexorable spread across the land…   

First Step Shelter Debacle

The farcical discussion of turning a publicly funded housing program known as First Step Shelter – one constructed by a public entity, using public funds, located on publicly owned land, and largely supported by tax dollars – into a private not-for-profit organization exempt from Florida’s open meetings law continued this week. 

Why? 

Because the beleaguered executive director and a gaslighting board member prefer to conduct business behind closed doors – away from the prying eyes of We, The People and those increasingly wary donors who pay for it all…

What’s the big secret that no one is talking about at First Step?

According to an excellent article by Eileen Zaffiro-Kean writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal this week, we learned:

“Mayor Derrick Henry, who is also the president of the board of directors of First Step Shelter, spoke out forcefully Monday against the idea of making the organization private, a move that would exempt it from Florida’s open meetings and records laws.

Board member Mike Panaggio suggested turning the shelter into a privately run agency, something Executive Director Victoria Fahlberg has also said she would prefer.

Henry objected to First Step Shelter no longer operating as a public agency with public records and public meetings. He said he doesn’t think there’s “a snowball’s chance in hell” that local residents will be OK with that, and he isn’t going to even ask Daytona Beach city commissioners if they want to let the shelter go private.”

Mayor Henry is right. 

The Florida Constitution protects the public’s right of access to governmental meetings and public boards, to include any gathering of two or more members of the same board who discuss issues which may come before them for action.

In essence, if we pay for it, the public has a right to see how the sausage gets made.

Following the ugly debacle surrounding whistleblower complaints of financial, managerial, and harassment allegations against Executive Director Fahlberg – credible accusations that were essentially swept under the rug with an incomplete quasi-investigation (again, paid for with public funds) – recently, the Daytona Beach City Commission gifted the shelter another $400,000 a year for the next five years, and renewed First Step’s lease on the city owned building.

To their credit, the Volusia County Council has deferred a decision on whether to commit an additional $400,000 annually until next month, when they are expected to discuss the fiduciary irresponsibility of throwing another $2 million of our hard-earned tax dollars at the troubled facility over the next five years…

At Monday’s board meeting, Panaggio claimed he feels “handcuffed” (?) by the open meetings law, explaining “…he would still like to see the shelter go private in the coming years so board members can talk to one another outside of meetings, and so the agency can operate more like other nonprofits.”

Of course, Director Fahlberg agrees.  I’ll bet she does… 

In another mind-bogglingly negligent action, there was discussion of using even more shelter funds to pay $3,500 in private attorney fees Fahlberg accrued defending against the whistleblower complaints – and an asinine suggestion that Fahlberg be gifted additional “protections” in her contract – including severance pay…

“I don’t think any of this is her fault,” Panaggio said. “If we had found something, I would have asked for her resignation.”

Bullshit. 

Since these allegations became known, Panaggio has done his best to destroy the personal and professional reputation of the whistleblowers, call their motivations into question, and shield Fahlberg from serious questions regarding her fiscal management and oversight of the enigmatic program.  

Why is that?

In my experience, when an appointed board member and the executive director of a publicly funded social service have goals and opinions that no longer align with those of the governing organization – in this case Mayor Henry and the City of Daytona Beach – then it is time for them to do the honorable thing and resign. 

In the view of many, it is past time for Mike Panaggio and Victoria Fahlberg to take their leave and allow the First Step Board of Directors to begin the arduous process of restoring the public’s trust in this important program.  

Quote of the Week

“I can assure you that I’ve never taken one contribution from anybody, be it a developer a lawyer or any other business that can influence my vote,” Dye said. “As a matter of fact, I intend to be able to — the reason to have accepted these contributions is to take some of the smartest people in the industry to sit down and help us craft real solutions that will stop the conditions that both of us are talking about today.”

After launching his campaign in May of 2023 through the end of that year, Dye raised about $235,441 in monetary contributions. Dye’s contributions included at least $20,000 from developer Mori Hosseini’s associated businesses, family members and a trust.

“There’s no question, I have received plenty of contributions from developers, from attorneys, from landscapers, from painters from plumbers — by the way if you want to put 36,000 people out of business (and) on the unemployment line, just run all the construction out of here because that’s what we keep saying,” Dye said. “We keep talking about how we’re not going to build anything and there’s 36,000 people employed in this industry in this community.”

–“Car Guy” Randy Dye, candidate for Volusia County Chair, as quoted by The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Dye, Brower square off over leadership,” Sunday, October 6, 2024

Sound familiar? 

Every Volusia County politician who ever accepted massive campaign contributions from all the right last names has said the exact same thing: “My vote can’t be bought!”

Reassuring that if we elect them, their very important “friends” will help “craft real solutions.”

Then, once they take their seat on the dais, we watch as those same idealistic wannabes transmogrify into everything they hated, falling into lockstep conformity, and selling out to the wants and whims of those influential special interests who lavishly funded their rise to power…

As of this writing, Randy Dye reports campaign contributions of $452,102. 47.

By any metric, that’s a lot of money for a county chair race… 

By contrast, his opponent, incumbent Chair Jeff Brower has accumulated $97, 733.65.

Those who observe “Fun Coast” politics with a critical eye have long understood that Volusia County’s artificial economy is essentially based on the same group of extremely wealthy power brokers passing the same nickel around.

With increasing frequency – that nickel originates from our tax dollars…

For years, I have opined that the outsized influence of the economic elite on Volusia County politics is best exposed during the political season. Thanks to campaign finance reporting requirements, come election time, the behind-the-scenes work of influential insiders is more difficult to conceal.

In my jaded view, it exposes a mini-oligarchy, controlled exclusively by our “Rich & Powerful” who trade in hand-select political candidates – malleable puppets who ultimately shape public policy – all controlled through unnatural infusions of cash into campaign accounts and the undeniable personal influence that money buys.

What mystifies me is why so many voters in Volusia County continue to tolerate it?

Look, Randy Dye is a smart businessman who understands the concept of “ROI” – Return on Investment – better than I do.  (What little money I have is tied up in what chartered accountants call frivolous spending and “crippling liabilities…”) 

Look, these individuals who make multiple $1,000 donations in their names and the numerous entities they control did not amass massive personal wealth without the ability to control their environment, and, in my view, that is exactly what the political influence they purchase provides. 

It also places them at the very nexus of public funds and private interests and buys them a chip in the incredibly lucrative game of corporate welfare masquerading as economic development enticements.

In my view, you don’t need an MBA from Harvard Business School to understand that one does not invest large sums of money without expecting a return.  After all, the road to the poor house is paved with the bones of those who ignored the simple analytical formula – Net Profit v. Cost of Investment.

These individuals did not become incredibly successful by shoving money down a rabbit hole expecting a bean stalk to rise into the heavens where the golden goose resides.  These are extraordinarily savvy businesspeople who are very adept at accumulating personal and corporate wealth.

I’m all for free-market capitalism – innovate, outmaneuver the competition, do it better, more efficiently, then build a better mousetrap and make a fortune – just leave government largesse, political favors, and the skewed playing field that results out of the formula for success… 

Despite Mr. Dye’s tired affirmations, in my jaded opinion, the local donor class make these massive campaign contributions with the full knowledge that their personal, civic, and professional interests will outweigh those of We, The Little People every single time.

Am I wrong?

That is what they must consider an appropriate return on investment, and given the astronomical amount of “economic incentives,” zoning changes, laughable impact fees, the complete disregard of concurrency requirements, and massive development approvals that our elected officials have continued to shower upon this exclusive group in recent years, I would have to say they’ve done extremely well on the risk/reward scale.

Is what we experience in Volusia County a legalized form of quid pro quo influence peddling – campaign dollars for political favors?

I don’t know.  But it has a whiff of shit about it…

What I do know is that when these very same powerful insiders appear – individually or en masse – in the Volusia County Council Chambers, invariably – and I mean 100% of the time – the issue, project, or development they support is handed to them on a gilded platter, wrapped up in a bow, with all the trimmings.

Now, I may be crazy, but I’m not a fool.  Neither are you.

So, I would encourage Volusia County voters to ask Mr. Dye at the next stilted hobnob or political soiree the $452,102.47 question: If they don’t expect favorable treatment on issues important to their bottom-line, why would a few uber-wealthy power brokers spend a small fortune to support his candidacy for Volusia County Chair?

Here’s another quote I’m fond of:

“There is a growing disconnect between average citizens and elected officials.  Part of the blame lies with a campaign finance system that unfairly stacks the deck in favor of the few able to give exceptionally large contributions.”

–The Brennan Center for Justice

Cui Bono?  Follow the money, y’all…

And Another Thing!

For most of my adult life, like my father and grandfather before me, I was a registered Republican. 

I consider myself a fiscal conservative and social moderate who has always rejected extremism on all sides of the political spectrum, and like my ultraconservative father, I am also a staunch supporter of environmental conservation.  Someone who thinks for himself, researches the issues, forms an opinion, then votes my conscience. 

The campaign nattering of some well-coiffed shit-gibbon in a television ad, names on a slanted “voter’s guide,” or the exaggerated pap and fluff on a glossy mailer mean nothing to me…

A decade ago, as the fringe elements of both major political parties began the radical polarization – the “Us vs. Them” mentality – that now permeates all aspects of politics, governance, and our everyday lives, I split from the Republican party and registered No Party Affiliation – a designation that is beginning to rival both Democrats and Republicans here in Volusia County.   

For me, it became apparent that the Republican Party no longer represented my interests – while the Democratic Party never did…

While the local Democratic apparatus has become little more than a neutered moon bat – the Volusia County Executive Committee continues to be populated by the stagnant “Old Guard” – wholly controlled by an ossified coterie of lockstep insiders – dedicated to preserving the lethargic status quo (and maintaining the suckling order of those who feed at the public teat) against all internal and external threats to the horribly bloated bureaucracy. 

Now, it appears conditions have worsened in the cloistered halls of the Volusia County Republican Executive Committee…

Earlier this month, in an informative article by Al Everson writing in the West Volusia Beacon, we learned that a “…Deltona woman and member of the Volusia County Republican Executive Committee is suing the organization to which she belongs and county Republican Chairman Paul Deering.”

According to the Beacon’s report:

“Rosa C. Campbell, who is herself a member of the local Republican Executive Committee, alleges Deering and others engaged in discrimination “against certain types of Conservative members of VCREC by turning them away from joining [the] committee.”

Campbell’s complaint was first filed with the West Volusia Branch of the NAACP, but she has in recent days delivered a refined complaint to the U.S. District Court in Orlando. Contacted by phone, Campbell told The Beacon that she has not yet hired a lawyer to represent her, but she is searching for one. In the filing with the NAACP that accompanies her federal complaint, Campbell writes that Deering, on Feb. 11, 2018, “referred to me as the token Black” in the REC and “made negative comments about Hispanics.

Since that time I tried to get along with Chairman Deering at the General meetings, but he would always ignore me when I raised my hand,” she wrote.

Campbell also wrote that Deering “had me removed from a candidate endorsement meeting on June 25, 2024 because I was taking pictures of candidates speaking, that I would vote on their endorsement by the Republican party and listed in the voter guide.”

Unfortunately, the article concluded that the Beacon was unable to contact Chairman Deering for a response…

If these allegations are true – I have a problem with that. 

You should too.  Especially if you are a registered Republican in Volusia County.  

In my view, petty tyrants have always been a problem in local political organizations – typically clubbish cliques that operate in diametric opposition to the egalitarian principles they claim to represent. 

Discrimination, bullying, and exclusion have no place in our democratic system, despite what some high-powered partisan martinets like Paul Deering might think, and perhaps it is time for Volusia County Republican’s to ask state party officials just how long they intend to tolerate it? 

That’s all for me.  Here’s wishing everyone a happy, safe, and prosperous Biketoberfest!   

Let’s put the crazy away for now…

With the common threat of Hurricane Milton bearing down, now is the time to consider the many things that unite us as a community.

We can argue petty politics later.

As Florida faces another major tropical system, I’ve seen several people reach out on social media to report they recently moved to the “Fun Coast” and are experiencing their first Hurricane.

That’s a frightening prospect for many of our new neighbors.

In my experience, if you have a proper family preparedness plan, follow the directives of emergency management officials, stay informed, take caution with generators and power tools, remain inside a substantial structure or evacuate if directed, you can drastically increase your odds of weathering the storm just fine.   

The power of Mother Nature’s magnificently efficient natural processes serves many purposes, and our very survival depends upon them.

We human beings have adapted to natures wrath through advanced technology, scientific forecasting methods, and our well-evolved sense of self-preservation; but every so often, we are reminded in the most extraordinary way that there are some things our “superior” intellect and engineering simply cannot control.

Though we have developed sophisticated insurance and financial systems that allow us to build our homes and sources of income where we probably shouldn’t – and replace them in the exact same spot when we are invariably caught out – the power of nature can be difficult to comprehend when we come face-to-face with it.

As I write this, Hurricane Milton is a strong Category 5 storm, rapidly bearing down on the State of Florida, and everyone in the region should be prepared at this hour.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and the devastating floods that have left much of the southeast underwater or worse – with heartbreaking scenes of total devastation in Southern Appalachia and beyond – and Milton churning in the Gulf of Mexico – I’ve heard some ask why? 

A natural meteorological cycle?  Climate Change?  Bad luck?

I don’t know.

What I do know is that while we have harnessed many natural powers, developed complex civilizations and system of governance, split the atom, and even transported ourselves to other planets – we still need the essential elements, seasonal changes, and temperate climates to survive.

Look, I’m not an overly religious sort, but even an unrepentant sinner like me can see that a power greater than all of us has developed a wonderful natural order – systems and patterns that constantly supply us with the fundamental processes necessary to sustain and propagate life on Earth.

Despite our strange desire to kill one another with mindless efficiency and pollute our only environment like a foul bird shitting in its own nest…

Meteorologists tell us that hurricanes are the earth’s air conditioner, efficiently transporting warm air from the mid-latitudes to the colder polar regions.  They also serve to move warmth from the lower levels of the atmosphere vertically, conducting solar heat from the surface into the troposphere, “mixing” the atmosphere, and ensuring a temperate balance and climate.

This natural quest for global thermal equilibrium requires a powerful force to transport all that latent heat produced by the Sun – and that is the exact purpose of these monster storms.

We just happen to get in the way sometimes.

According to scientists, hurricanes also oxygenate seawater, help replenish barrier islands and deposit a massive amount of quantifiable energy into other parts of the globe.  While we can measure it, the purpose of this energy exchange isn’t fully understood.

I suspect it has something to do with Mother Nature’s constant search for balance.

To our physical and financial detriment, when these tropical weather systems interact with land, the human toll can be catastrophic. 

Look, I complain a lot about politics – but trust me – our local and state first responders at all levels, are experienced and well-equipped to deal with the response and recovery phases of this emergency.

Let’s quibble over our differences of opinion later.  Now is the time for unity – and generosity.

When the chips are down, neighbors helping neighbors is what community is all about.

Please continue to follow the directives of emergency management officials – and, most of all – please lend a hand to assist one another whenever possible.

Godspeed and good luck. 

Talk soon,

Mark

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the news and newsmakers of the day who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life or detracted from it in some significant way…

Daytona Beach City Commissioner Stacy Cantu

Daytona Beach City Commissioner Stacy Cantu and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye.

In fact, our differences of opinion on the issues facing our region are legendary.  But I have always admired the fact that she has the courage to engage – and she gives as good as she gets in the competition of ideas and heated debate.  

I respect that.  And when Ms. Cantu is right, she deserves all the credit. 

Wednesday night’s meeting of the Daytona Beach City Commission took a strange turn, I thought, when Commissioner Paula Reed read an open letter from “Concerned employees of the City of Daytona Beach” essentially taking Ms. Cantu to task for her “treatment” of City Manager Dereck Feacher. 

In my view, the frequent friction between the two stems, in part, from the ongoing controversy and miscommunication surrounding the city’s consideration of a 63-year-old, 32,000 square foot, multistory office building at 230 North Beach Street to house just 28 employees of the city’s permits and licensing department. 

A building Ms. Cantu and many others in the community believe should have been struck from the list weeks ago for a multitude of reasons…   

In my view, Daytona Beach taxpayers have no greater advocate than Stacy Cantu.  As an elected representative, it is clear that she will not have her voice or enthusiasm suppressed by anyone’s notion of “civility” – nor should she.   

As an elected official, her role is to remain vigilant on behalf of the taxpayers of Daytona Beach, and Ms. Cantu does an outstanding job of that – always remaining fiercely independent, and incredibly attentive to the concerns of her constituents. 

Besides, any elected body should have a variety of opinions, personalities, and approaches – because the alternative is a hollow echo chamber full of lockstep conformists where the tail consistently wags the dog…

Sound familiar?

With an active Florida Department of Environmental Protection investigation into the possible illegal removal of asbestos containing materials from the North Beach Street building underway – along with growing concerns over the cost and source of funds for a possible renovation – this week’s City Commission agenda had a single cryptic line under Comments and Inquiries that said:

“Deric C. Feacher, City Manager, will present options to the City Commission for the Permits & Licensing fund spending during his report.”   

No contracts.  No reference material.  And few answers to the growing question of “Why”?

At least none that I found… 

Thanks to Ms. Cantu’s independent investigation – and the excellent reportage of The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s Eileen Zaffiro-Kean – last week, wary residents learned that Mr. Feacher planned to bring back discussion of a proposal to purchase the building, a contract originally presented on July 3 with a price of $4.4 million, along with other properties for consideration. 

“Although the DEP investigation remains in full gear, City Manager Deric Feacher said he still plans to bring a measure to city commissioners offering them another chance to buy 230 N. Beach St. He wants to put the 28-employee permits and licensing department in the 32,000-square-foot building.

That measure commissioners will vote on will also include other buildings they could consider buying for permits and licensing, Feacher said.”

We also learned of the ongoing attempts by DEP and local regulators to determine when and how possible asbestos containing materials may have been removed from the building – and how much of the dangerous carcinogen may remain inside. 

According to the News-Journal’s report:

“City Commissioner Stacy Cantu is surprised Feacher still wants commissioners to consider buying 230 N. Beach St. When she checked out the property in July, she saw work being done inside and both Dumpsters and trash cans jammed full with building materials she suspected contained asbestos.

She grew concerned for the workers hauling out the debris who weren’t wearing protective gear, and the waste removal workers who would be hauling away what was put in trash cans.

In early July she filed a formal complaint with the DEP that sparked the investigation.”

Good for Commissioner Cantu. 

Perhaps most disturbing, in June, it was reported that the City of Daytona Beach was under time constraints to spend at least $11.4 million in accumulated permits and licensing funds no later than October 4, something Mr. Feacher later refuted.   

“At a meeting in June, Feacher said $11.4 million of the $19.7 million in excess funds had to be spent by the beginning of October. When Cantu reminded him of that at the commission’s Sept. 18 meeting, Feacher said he didn’t recall saying it. He now says there is no deadline to spend the money.”

That confusion clearly didn’t sit well with Ms. Cantu.

Find the News-Journal’s informative exposé here: https://tinyurl.com/3rpe83mv

Oddly, during the subsequent discussion, we learned that the North Beach Street building is still in play – along with the former Cobb Cole and Wells-Fargo buildings on Ridgewood Avenue – although there were no specific contracts, appraisals, engineering reports, or items to be voted on.

What followed was a presentation by Deputy City Manager James Morris, who authored a report based upon the work of a committee of senior city administrators – which included Chief Building Official Glenn Urquhart and City Business Enterprise Director Michael Stallworth – discussing the pros and cons of the three properties under consideration. 

Ultimately, Mr. Morris announced that the troubled building at 230 North Beach Street was the unanimous vote of the committee to recommend for purchase. 

Disturbing.   

After Mr. Morris expended a lot of hot air, his selling point (as I understood it), came back to the old real estate trope – location, location, location – essentially, the building would serve as another lure to draw people to Beach Street.

(Didn’t we hear the same sales pitch for the Brown & Brown Headquarters when it was billed as the panacea for all the woes of Downtown Daytona?)  

To her credit, Ms. Cantu actually took the time to read the Florida State Statute governing how excess permits and licensing fees can be spent.  The plain language of the law states that the funds may only be used for the “construction of a building or structure” related to code enforcement activities – not for the purchase of a building or property.

That began a convoluted discussion by City Attorney Benjamin Gross, who (as lawyers like to do when gambling with someone else’s money) quibbled the language in the law – ultimately coming to the conclusion:  If they proceed with using the excess fees to purchase the building and rehabilitate it, a lawsuit could be filed against the City of Daytona Beach, and there would be potential liability… 

So, why is the Daytona Beach City Commission being led by the nose by its senior staff to purchase a questionable building currently under DEP investigation – one with mounting questions over the purchase price, and potential cost of rehabilitation and renovation?

Also, to Ms. Cantu’s point, why would the municipal government want to remove the building from the tax rolls?    

Time will tell… 

City staff has been asked to bring back more specific information regarding each of the buildings under consideration within 45-days.

I don’t always agree with Ms. Cantu, but in this case, her exhaustive investigation into the health and safety issues surrounding the North Beach Street building – and her increasingly pointed questions for senior administrators – serve as an excellent example of how servant-leaders sometimes must use sharp elbows to push their way behind Oz’s velvet curtain to protect taxpayers – and the public trust.   

Carl Persis v. Donna Brosemer – Volusia County School Board District 4

Let’s call this continuing saga “A Tale of Two Candidates…”

Last week, entrenched Volusia County School Board incumbent Carl Persis stomped his sequined shoes and continued his personal pity party in the Ormond Beach Observer with a “C’mon guys, this is serious!” rehash of recent vandalism to six of his campaign signs.

I guess the 900-word self-promotion the previous week wasn’t enough free publicity?

As I understand it, the damage included a sign belonging to his wife, the other half of what passes for Volusia’s ‘Power Couple,’ Susan Persis, who is running against Jason Leslie for mayor of Ormond Beach.   

In this case, someone placed crude stickers over Carl’s smiling visage on the signs – his mouth to be exact – which said, “be yourself, You Suck!”  At least one of Susan Persis’ signs showed spray paint scribbled over her picture.     

Look, I abhor political violence or vandalism in any form.  In fact, I can’t think of anything more un-American.

But I also dislike chronic whiners who attempt to wring every drop of civic sympathy out of a goofy political statement…

During his egocentric mewl and pule, Carl fanned the damage as the crime of the century, decrying the fact his opponent in the District 4 School Board race, Donna Brosemer, “…dismissed the significance and seriousness of these actions…”   

My ass.

In the interest of equal time, the Observer gave Ms. Brosemer a chance to respond.

To her credit, Ms. Brosemer returned the discussion where it belongs – to an examination of the myriad issues facing Volusia County students, parents, teachers, and staff – and the abominable history of the current board, who not only refuse to hold failed Superintendent Carmen Balgobin accountable, but recently heaped lavish praise on her during a review… 

A confused, insular, and arrogant board who slavishly serve a Superintendent (you read that right) with an almost pathological inability to effectively communicate with stakeholders.

According to Ms. Brosemer, “The district budget is equally bloated. He raised no objection when, with the Board’s knowledge, they mishandled $200 million in Covid funds. He has allowed schools to be without media specialists, students to get home at dinnertime because of a lack of buses, classes and programs to be cancelled — things that are his job to fix, and which actually matter. He apparently cares more about his own budget than that of the public.

Mr. Persis isn’t used to having to defend his record. In eight years on the school board, he has played the part of a cheerleader who doesn’t have to care whether his team wins or loses. He can just keep smiling and telling the fans how great their team is doing. If he admits anything needs improvement, he might have to do some actual work.

The team is losing. The damage to his signs is trivial. He wants someone to be held accountable. The voters will do that on November 5.”

The back-and-forth continued with Mr. Persis calling any mention of the issues a “negative attack”:

“Another negative attack from Donna Brosemer, who moved here three years ago. Rather than condemn the actions of the lawbreakers, who defaced six of my signs, she continues to downplay their trespassing and vandalism. She criticizes me for wanting to hold the people, who were responsible for damaging my signs, responsible.

She attacks me for being a positive voice for public education. She attacks the school district and speaks in half-truths. For example, I do not have a $135,000 campaign war chest. The balance is closer to $15,000. The District did not mishandle $200 million in COVID funds. We strategically invested the money to hire more teachers to enable students to learn in smaller class sizes at school, online at home, or a hybrid of staying home and learning from their teachers, who were at school.”

Speaking of half-truths, as of earlier this week Mr. Persis’ campaign account shows total contributions of $113,145.48 – with expenditures of $91,666.53 – leaving a balance of $21,478.95. 

That’s over $6,000 more than he claims in the Observer, but who’s counting, eh?   

I guess when you’ve drug on the public teat as long as Carl has, keeping track of money and account balances isn’t an issue.

Last Friday, Ms. Brosemer published a thought-provoking essay in the Observer entitled, “Severe classroom behaviors at Volusia County Schools need to be addressed,” wherein she quoted teachers who recently addressed the School Board regarding the physical and emotional toll of students who destroy classrooms, assault teachers, hurt classmates, and the frustration of dealing with an entrenched administration who refuses to listen.   

According to Ms. Brosemer, “When it was the board members’ turn to speak, all five commented about threats to shoot up a school. Only two referred to the teachers’ concerns, with no solution offered, beyond the need for documentation before action can be taken.

In other words, the bureaucracy decides, the situation remains, and nothing changes.”

Well said.  And disturbingly true…  

In my view, the one constant in Volusia County governance – regardless of countywide office – is the insistence by our influential powers that be that the stagnant status quo be protected and preserved at all costs. 

And absolutely nothing is off-limits in defense of lockstep conformity and averageness.   

That is why for far too long, weary Volusia County taxpayers have been yoked with malleable finger-puppets like Carl and Susan Persis – political chameleons who embrace mediocrity and dutifully pace the ramparts of their respective Ivory Towers of Power – totally detached from the harsh realities faced by their constituents.

In my view, pasting on a cheesy grin and singing Everything is Beautiful in the face of gathering storm clouds at Volusia County District Schools isn’t leadership – its lunacy.

Now is the time to demand better.  That positive change starts at the ballot box.    

Public Defender Matt Metz

“Public shaming serves no rehabilitative or deterrent purpose.  Children that are willing to do something despite the threat of arrest won’t be deterred by a Facebook post. However, children that are rehabilitated by the criminal justice system can still have their future ruined by that same Facebook post.  Absentee parents aren’t changing their ways because someone posted a child they didn’t know on the internet.  Instead, we are assuring that a child shamed online will never be able to outlive their past. We are putting the entirety of our frustration on our inability to stop these horrendous shootings on the shoulders of any child who makes a threat.

It is easy to applaud this action for those who, like me, grew up in a world where every mistake wasn’t transcribed for eternity on the internet. However, the reality is that these mugshots and videos will live on forever. That is before we even consider that a juvenile under arrest has the same presumption of innocence as everyone else in this country. A child arrested has not been convicted of any crime.”

–Matthew Metz, Public Defender, 7th Judicial Circuit, as excerpted from his essay in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “’Perp walking’ children will not make community any safer,” Monday, September 30, 2024

Since my retirement from law enforcement, I now have the time to read, learn, and contemplate the many contemporary issues facing my former profession, and I am consistently amazed at how fast public opinion on police tactics can change. 

Now that I have the luxury of spending most of my time alone – I find that sometimes when you sit in silence, you hear the meaning of things – gaining the sense of “why” that is often lost in the din and clamor of one’s productive life. But I’ll be honest, my feelings remain torn on the issues brought forth in Public Defender Matt Metz’ thoughtful essay…    

In recent weeks, amid a spate of threats against area schools, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood made headlines across the globe (literally) when he made the decision to ‘perp walk’ children – a practice where a person in law enforcement custody is led into a jail facility in such a way as to enable the media to publicize the event.

In this case, Sheriff Chitwood apparently used the practice as a means of publicly humiliating those charged with the crime as a deterrent.

Effective?  I don’t know – but time will tell.

The first suspect to receive Sheriff Chitwood’s ‘walk of shame’ was an 11-year-old boy with a cache of realistic BB guns, knives, and a horrific family history.  According to a News-Journal piece, the juvenile has had a less-than-ideal homelife, along with other challenges, none of which justifies his making threats against two Port Orange schools… 

Another child charged with making threats is a 15-year-old said to be living with autism. 

To his credit, Sheriff Chitwood refrained from publicly humiliating the autistic boy, although we have been assured, he will face the consequences of his actions.  

School shootings around the nation have proven the extreme violence children are capable of, and these threats must be taken seriously, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

While I am frequently critical of the Volusia County School Board and Superintendent Carmen Balgobin, it is clear they take school safety extremely seriously – sending a clear message to parents of the importance of taking an active role in their children’s lives and education – and I join with many throughout Volusia County and elsewhere in commending law enforcement and school authorities for their excellent outreach and vigilance.     

I can’t think of anything more important.  

From experience, I can tell you that one of the worst homicides I ever worked ended in the arrest of two teenagers who butchered a taxi driver, selected at random, and brutally stabbed to death just for the “thrill” of it. 

A tragic story written by absentee parents, feral children left to their own devices, and the callous savagery that parental neglect and mental depravity can produce.    

I’m certainly not a child psychologist, but I know kids are capable of weird shit, perhaps that’s because their pea brains are still developing.  That said, I also don’t know what this 11-year-old may have experienced at school that prompted him to make threats to kill, but given the life altering implications, perhaps someone should explore that?

In recent days, I’ve spoken to some of my former colleagues in law enforcement – hardboiled veterans, some of whom said they supported the measure before watching the video of a small child, otherwise compliant, being shackled hand-and-foot, paraded in front of a camera then led into a holding cell as part of a staged production specifically designed to shame and degrade…   

Look, desperate times require drastic measures.  That I understand.  

But others aren’t too sure Sheriff Chitwood’s official humiliation of children is appropriate – or effective.  This week, retired Orlando radio personality Jim Phillips asked in an opinion piece published in the Orlando Sentinel, “who benefits?”  

Although Mr. Phillips agrees that Sheriff Chitwood is correct in being angry with children who threaten to shoot up schools, he also suggests the juvenile ‘perp walks’ are more for the aggrandizement of Sheriff Chitwood. 

“Chitwood is grandstanding. Taping and distributing a video of a handcuffed 11-year-old accomplishes what? The risk of violence against school students must not be taken lightly, However, shaming a child via a perp walk is a type of tough love that should raise eyebrows. Unfortunately, Sheriff Chitwood (to paraphrase Shakespeare) is full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”

Personally, I struggle with the practice for many of the same reasons so compassionately articulated by Public Defender Matt Metz – not the least of which is the slippery slope of law enforcement becoming judge, jury, and final arbiter of “justice” for those charged with a crime in our American system of justice – based upon the principle that the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.   

That concern is leavened by the fact I have school aged grandchildren, whose safety I worry about every day…

In my view, Defender Metz showed great courage in speaking out on this controversial topic – and for giving us all something to think about. 

Quote of the Week

“Avalon Park, said Ormond Beach resident Connie Colby, is a “definite problem” for Ormond Beach.

“Hand Avenue is already used as the alternate for Granada in Ormond Beach,” she said. “It’s heavily trafficked and it’s getting widened now just for the residents, us.”

Ormond residents, she said, do not need a Hand Avenue extension.

County Council Chair Jeff Brower voted against accepting the agreements, saying he wasn’t in favor of taxpayers funding any roads in the development.

“This is one of the areas that I believe we just should have never developed west of I-95, right here,” Brower said. “It’s all very wet.”

–Reporter Jarleene Almenas, Ormond Beach Observer, “Volusia to fund bridges for Hand Avenue extension,” Wednesday, October 2, 2024  

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the sad beginning of the end of the City of Ormond Beach as you know it… 

And Another Thing!

Despite the foot-dragging and obstructionism that has become the modus operandi of the stagnant status quo, this week, Volusia County Council Chair Jeff Brower did what he had been warned not to do when he used his authority as granted by charter to agenda the discussion of a possible rural boundary charter amendment to limit further malignant sprawl and the resultant development-induced flooding.

Last month, At-Large Councilman Jake Johansson attempted to preemptively postpone the important discussion by kicking the issue down the dusty political trail until March 2025, and requiring the measure be taken up by the Charter Review Commission next year.

In effect, Mr. Johansson sought to put time and distance (and what his cronies hope will be the defeat of Chairman Jeff Brower) between starting the lengthy process many disenfranchised residents are praying will result in the charter amendment being placed on the ballot in 2026.

As Chairman Brower, area environmental advocates, and flooded residents have said, this will not be a quick or simple process – an issue that elicits strong emotions and varied opinions – but the overriding push from existing residents is to begin the discussion, find collective solutions, and tailor an amendment that preserves rural lands, protects landowner rights and investment, and at least slows the encroachment of out-of-control development on remaining wildlife habitat and agricultural lands. 

On Tuesday, with Councilmen Johansson and Danny Robins conspicuously absent, some 19 residents from throughout Volusia County approached the dais of power in Deland to passionately express their concerns, argue the importance of maintaining rural lands, and limiting growth and density to protect the public’s health, welfare, and quality of life.

By my count, only one resident spoke against a rural boundary amendment – and most of their argument was explaining what the speaker thought motivated Councilman Johansson’s procrastination – backed by a misguided and premature letter from the president of the Volusia County Farm Bureau’s board of directors to Councilman Robins (?) opposing the measure before a preliminary discussion has even been held. 

Perhaps most important, anxious residents of unincorporated Volusia County asked that their elected representatives consider putting property owners on a rural boundary advisory committee – people who have invested their lives in rural lands and now feel surrounded – and are suffering the devastating effects of development-induced flooding.

Sadly, during the well-thought presentations of several speakers, some of our elected gargoyles just got up and left – apparently cowering in the bathroom until their absence became too flagrant to ignore – rather than face the glare of their concerned constituents. At least one speaker pointed out the “body language” and “level of engagement” by those glazed over “policymakers” on the dais. 

Perhaps most horribly frustrating was watching demonstrably pro-growth politicians – some of whom have held various elective offices for years – while this “growth at all costs” development was expanding exponentially across the width and breadth of Volusia County – who now sit there and paint themselves as smart growth advocates committed to limiting the ooze of urban development into rural areas.

All while approving even more zoning changes and Planned Unit Developments…

They call that talking out of both sides of one’s mouth – a political ventriloquist act employed by those hypocritical “representatives” who pay lip service to their constituents – while ensuring every want and whim of voracious developers with a chip in the game.

That’s why it does my beat-up old heart good to see such committed and engaged citizens demanding action on issues of regional concern from those who held themselves out for high office – then ignored the collective welfare of the many – to protect the greed-crazed motives of those who hold the paper on their political souls… 

I’ve said this, ad nauseum, but this issue exemplifies the importance of elections – and informed voters doing their due diligence to determine who and what funds the political campaigns of those marionettes who continue to strategically dally and dawdle while the bulldozers roar.

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!  

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the news and newsmakers of the day who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life or detracted from it in some significant way…

Before we start this week’s hayride to the dark side of local politics and governance, I want to send my thoughts and prayers to everyone affected by Hurricane Helene. 

Godspeed and good luck.  

Sodden Citizens of Edgewater

There are dark skies gathering in Edgewater.

Across the width and breadth of Volusia County, waterlogged residents are demanding answers and accountability from elected and appointed officials at all levels of government who have sacrificed our health, safety, and quality of life on the altar of greed.

Adding to the growing instability in Southeast Volusia, last week, City Manager Glenn Irby was abruptly fired just minutes into a standing room only special meeting of the Edgewater City Council, one dominated by angry residents voicing their concerns over development-induced flooding that has left the Florida Shores area inundated in recent weeks. 

Within the first five-minutes of the meeting, Edgewater’s man-child Mayor Diezel “I Need Alcohol!” Depew and his colleagues on the dais moved to terminate Irby – with Mayor Depew attempting to cobble together a list of grievances he felt would amount to the legal definition of “with cause.”

Ultimately, the majority opted to sever the manager’s contract without cause, allowing Irby to collect 20-weeks of severance.

I couldn’t help but snicker and giggle listening to Mayor Depew recite a laundry list of “violations” against Mr. Irby, some of which referenced professionalism and ethics, rudeness toward a member of the public who wished to speak, and acting inappropriately in social media posts.

Frankly, I wasn’t sure if Mayor Depew was reading his allegations – or looking in a mirror…   

Some felt Irby’s demise was well-deserved – others are convinced he was scapegoated by a troubled Mayor and confused Council who lack a comprehensive vision – or mitigation strategy – for dealing with development and the resultant stormwater issues that have many worried for their future.

To assuage the growing fears of his soggy constituents, Mayor Depew claimed that someone in city government is finally getting off their duff to address problems, with water still standing in some areas: 

“We’re creating a plan, we hear you.  I didn’t sleep at all on Saturday. I was up until 5 am. I see it, I went through it during Hurricane Ian.”

(For the record, Hurricane Ian hit two years ago…)           

Mayor Depew’s propensity for staying up until late aside, in my view, this civic disorientation during an emergency is the classic symptom of a local government in crisis…   

Some residents cite poorly maintain drainage swales as contributing to the problem (that was Irby’s department…) while most agree new development permitted above the elevation of existing subdivisions has allowed water to do, well, what water does – find the lowest geographical place to pool – turning surrounding neighborhoods into drainage basins. 

Look, I’m not an expert in fluid dynamics, but I can turn a bowl upside-down, pour water on it, and watch the force of gravity do its thing on an impervious surface. 

That’s what makes this ongoing disaster so maddening. 

In the view of many threatened property owners throughout Volusia County, this expanding catastrophe was so predictable – and preventable – yet, elected officials, growth managers, and public engineers at all levels of government (those who either knew or should have known the ultimate outcome) practiced career preservation, kept their mouth shut, and did the bidding of those on the dais of power who are beholden to the real estate development industry for their campaign war chests. 

And that pernicious cycle has repeated, time and time again throughout Volusia County and beyond.      

Now, the Edgewater City Council has directed staff to draft two building moratoriums – one covering Florida Shores, the other city-wide – except for the Park Town Industrial Center. 

City officials are also exploring a possible stop work order for ongoing development.

Trust me.  This problem isn’t limited to the City of Edgewater – and it will not be an easy or inexpensive fix.  

For now, let’s keep our fingers crossed that Edgewater officials made the right move with the impetuous termination of Glenn Irby and can find the much-needed leadership and stability residents deserve. 

Most important, let’s hope that Mayor Depew has learned a valuable lesson about the importance of credibility during a crisis… 

Volusia County Councilman David “No Show” Santiago

There was a time when personal and professional credibility mattered – especially in governance.

An expectation that those in positions of power who make laws, ordinances, and allocations that affect our lives and livelihoods will humble themselves to the responsibilities of public service, listen to their constituents, share our collective values, and conduct themselves in a manner worthy of our trust. 

After four years on the Deltona City Commission, from 2012 to 2020, David Santiago served in the Florida House of Representatives, representing District 27 (and Florida’s powerful insurance industry) for two terms. 

In 2016, he was briefly a candidate for the U. S. House of Representatives in Florida’s Sixth Congressional District but bailed when incumbent Ron DeSantis entered the race.

According to an October 2020 report in Florida Politics, we learned of Mr. Santiago’s efforts in the Florida legislature to further the interests of insurance companies:

“Among his contributions were bills related to workers compensation, travel insurance, surplus lines insurance, the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, pharmacy benefits managers, motor vehicle insurance, reinsurance, civil remedies against insurers, consumer finance loans, blockchain technologies, construction defects, insurance rate making and forms, and condominium loss assessments.

Concurrent with his legislative service, Santiago was a four-year member of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, a nonprofit organization that helps legislators make informed decisions on federal and state insurance regulation.”

Interesting… 

In keeping with Florida’s “one hand washes the other” environment, where former lawmakers are welcomed into the inner sanctum of lobbying firms who helped them gain and maintain office, when Santiago was term limited out of state office, he deftly squeaked past the influence peddling loophole of Amendment 12 (which didn’t take effect until 2022) and accepted a job with Colodny Fass, described as “one of the premier mid-size lobbying firms in the state,” who represents a “litany of insurance interests.” 

Hummm… 

In 2020, keeping with his propensity for hopscotching from one elected paycheck to another – Mr. Santiago lost to Will Roberts in a bid to become Volusia County’s first elected tax collector in 50-years. 

At the time, The Daytona Beach News-Journal listed his occupation as “financial manager” (?), and reported that, while most of Roberts’ political contributions originated from local individuals and businesses, “…Santiago’s $43,300 in campaign contributions is more than double that of Roberts’ $19,420 war chest.

Approximately $33,000 of Santiago’s funding comes from political action committees and auto tag agencies, and about 80% of contributions come from outside Volusia County.”

Guess it’s nice to have friends in high places, eh?

Although we are never quite sure how (or if) these things end, reports indicate Santiago later became executive director of Floridians for Lawsuit Reform, a group pushing tort reform measures in the Florida Legislature, and he is currently listed as “strategic director” for The LIBRE Initiative of Americans for Prosperity – Florida. 

In 2022, during his run for the Volusia County Council, Santiago made headlines when he was sued, then countersued, for alleged defamation. 

According to a report by Mark Harper writing in the News-Journal:

“Family Health Source and its CEO, Laurie Asbury, are asking a Volusia Circuit Court for damages in excess of $30,000, in addition to attorney’s fees and other costs because, they argue, Santiago made false and defamatory statements about them in three emails he sent to the organization’s board and “third parties.”

Apparently, things got heated when Mr. Santiago was terminated by Family Health Source – a federally qualified nonprofit healthcare center in West Volusia – where he served as “chief operations development officer” with a salary of $150,000 annually (really?) – while still earning some $120,000 working for Colodny Fass…   

Yeah.  Hummm… 

According to the Volusia County Clerk of the Court’s website, the lawsuits were dismissed by joint stipulation in January 2024, with each party agreeing to pay their own attorney fees… 

Following his election to the District 5 (Deltona) Volusia County Council seat in 2022 – in June 2023, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that Mr. Santiago missed four out of eleven meetings at that time. 

During the recent August primary, Councilman Santiago’s wife, Emma, made the public teat a family affair when she was elected to the District 2 City Commission seat in Deltona… 

I found Mr. Santigo’s history in and around government interesting, especially in the context of his most recent lobbying efforts – this time from the dais of power in DeLand – when he literally strongarmed Volusia County advertising authorities to underwrite marketing efforts for the low-cost, limited route, “airlines” that Daytona Beach “International” Airport keeps attracting with exorbitant publicly funded incentives and revenue guarantees, then calling it “progress.”

Last week, there was a testy exchange between Mr. Santiago and Daytona Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Lori Campbell Baker, when she (like everyone else watching) thought Santiago was manipulating changes to the model the various advertising authorities use to fund airport marketing efforts without the courtesy of notifying the boards in advance. 

Because he was… 

During the meeting, Santiago made a longwinded motion changing the airline marketing scheme to one where funds would initially come from the county’s Economic Development fund, then be reimbursed by the authorities during the 2024-25 fiscal year. 

In my view, it was a thuggish ‘powerplay’ – a subtle suggestion of what can happen when one raises their head against Santiago – or dares question his motivations (which are always instinctively political…)

According to a report in the Ormond Beach Observer:

“We, in good faith, came back with what we thought you needed us to do for this fiscal year,” Baker said.

Santiago said there seemed to be resentment among some of the authorities’ board members during their recent special meeting to discuss the budget amendments.

“I left with the impression that, ‘How dare us tell them how to spend their money?'” Santiago said. “And I think a forgetting, if that makes sense, that that board, all of these boards, serve at our pleasure, because we each appoint folks in there to do these jobs.”

Baker told Santiago that the groups are advertising authorities, not advisory committees. The council, she said, has done a “stellar job” in appointing the 11-member Halifax Area Advertising Authority, all of whom are heavily involved in the budget process.

“They use those dollars and approve those dollars as if they were their very own,” Baker said. “So, there’s accountability like you wouldn’t believe, and so that’s where I’m trying to get … and you heard them, they’re very passionate.”

“Some might say a little too passionate in some of their commentary,” Santiago replied from the dais.”

Later, the petite King David said he didn’t have anything against the board members.

Bullshit.   

“I don’t want to make it personal, but I couldn’t even point out any of your members on a lineup,” Santiago said.

In essence, Councilman Santiago made a point to ridicule and marginalize the efforts of the nameless little people – those appointees with the knowledge, expertise, and fiduciary responsibility to fund the comprehensive needs of our areas tourism and hospitality industry – not just the marketing efforts of the latest here today/gone tomorrow ‘airline du jour’ at DAB. 

I could be wrong (I’m not), but I think “resentment” is what naturally results when dedicated board members set their respective budgets pursuant to real needs, only to have the rug pulled out from under them by a perennial politician like David Santiago – a petty dictatorial tyrant with no visible means of support outside the public trough – who now singlehandedly decrees the allocation of bed tax dollars as he sees fit… 

In my view, Abraham Lincoln was wrong.  In Deltona, it appears you can fool all the people, all the time… 

Quote of the Week

“I’m from South Florida, and in my 15 years here, I’ve never met one person, not one in Bunnell, Palm Coast, Flagler County, especially Flagler Beach that I said, You know what, Matt, I wish Flagler Beach was more like Orlando.”

–Flagler Beach resident Matt Hathaway speaking to the Flagler Beach City Commission, as quoted by FlaglerLive!, “Flagler Beach Hears Substantial Opposition to Veranda Bay Annexation as Developer Counters: ‘I Have Agreed to a Lot Here’,” Wednesday, September 25, 2024

And Another Thing!

I’m a sucker for a ‘David and Goliath’ story.

Always cheering for the underdog, hoping for the triumph of that which is good and equitable, empathizing with the disadvantaged, pulling for We, The Little People who band together in a cause greater than our own self-interests, those intrepid souls with the passion and grit to overcome against impossible odds. 

Unfortunately, in Florida, that doesn’t happen often.   Power prevails. 

Money talks and bullshit (like your quality of life) walks… 

Here in the biggest whorehouse in the world, those with the gold make the rules – the weak are trampled (or worse) – and anyone with the temerity to stand against common threats like environmental destruction, malignant overdevelopment, the omnipotent influence of the “Rich & Powerful,” and the greed that fuels it all, are crushed.      

Last fall, Daytona Beach officials visited First Christian Church on South Palmetto Avenue and Seventh Day Baptist Church on Live Oak Avenue – both located within the vast food desert that is the Downtown Redevelopment Area – and ordered them to shut down their long-established food pantries.

At the time, we were told the enforcement action came following a complaint from someone who objected to people gathering to wait for sustenance near the church.

That came as a surprise for both houses of worship – and the hungry residents they serve – as the food pantries had been providing for the very real needs of the community long before an ordinance was passed prohibiting food distribution programs in designated redevelopment areas.

This phenomenon isn’t limited to the City of Daytona Beach.   

Despite the conscience or character of their community, some government officials put their vision of “economic development” – and the comfort of those who prefer not to cast their eyes on the Great Unwashed waiting for alms – over the needs of hungry families at a time when a trip to the grocery store represents a crushing financial burden for many. 

Although First Christian Church was later found to have been “grandfathered” in and was allowed to reopen their food distribution site – officials could find no record that Seventh Day Baptist had registered their operation with the City of Daytona Beach.

Fortunately, Seventh Day Baptist found a true superhero in Daytona Beach Attorney Chobee Ebbetts, who valiantly took up the church’s plight, providing his expert services pro bono during the year-long legal fight – one that was ultimately joined by Texas nonprofit First Liberty Institute and Chicago based law firm Sidley Austin LLP, who would file a motion in federal court seeking an injunction to end Daytona Beach’s ban on food distribution to those in need.

According to an excellent article by Eileen Zaffiro-Kean writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal this week:

“After 12 months of legal wrangling, the church is dropping its lawsuit against the city, and the city will enter into a formal settlement agreement.

That settlement agreement will include the city repealing its ordinance that bans food pantries and food banks in redevelopment areas, said Daytona Beach attorney Chobee Ebbets, who has represented the church free of charge. Seventh Day Baptist Church is located in the city’s Downtown Community Redevelopment Area.”

In my view, Seventh Day Baptist Senior Pastor Ben Figueroa said it best, “This little David defeated Goliath,” Figueroa said. “God is the one who did it. He used Chobee.”

Good stuff…

Another minor miracle occurred in Flagler County last week, when Circuit Judge Chris France ruled in favor of Preserve Flagler Beach and Bulow Creek – ending an intimidating lawsuit filed by developer Palm Coast Intracoastal (a subsidiary of SunBelt Land Management) challenging the right of the environmental group to challenge the massive Veranda Bay – a sprawling mixed-use development with thousands of residential units and commercial space proposed for pristine riverfront greenspace along both sides of John Anderson Highway south of S.R. 100. 

According to an informative article in FlaglerLive!, we learned:               

“France termed PCI’s action a SLAPP suit impermissible under state law, handing the grass-roots group a major victory against the chilling effect of such lawsuits on speech and participation in matters of public concern. But it’s likely not over. “I would expect they intend to appeal. That’s what we’ve been told,” John Tanner, the attorney who was named among the defendants and argued on their behalf, said today.

“Since 2000, Florida law has prohibited the filing of ‘Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation,’ or so-called ‘SLAPP’ suits against individuals or entities for exercising their constitutional right to seek redress for grievances before a governmental entity,” France wrote, granting summary judgment in favor of the group. The Legislature strengthened anti-SLAP suit provisions in 2015.”

According to the report, Mr. Tanner said, “We’re pleased with the result and pleased with the judge’s order,” he said. “This is a landmark decision and it’s a major victory for citizen’s rights.”

(Please find the FlaglerLive! article here: https://flaglerlive.com/slapp-rejected/ )

I don’t know about you, but I needed a little good news. 

Kudos to Chobee Ebbetts and John Tanner for standing tall and fighting the good fight to protect the powerless.  Superheroes indeed…

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the news and newsmakers of the day who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life or detracted from it in some significant way…

Volusia County Council

Last year, the Volusia County Council and the City of Ormond Beach were caught flatfooted after their respective staffs had preliminary meetings with Belvedere Terminals, a bulk fuel supplier owned by Grupo México, who has announced plans to place an industrial petroleum farm and distribution facility in an unincorporated area adjacent to the Florida East Coast Railway tracks. 

As the City of Ormond Beach would provide utilities for the terminal, the city would be required to annex the 60-acre property, putting it dangerously close to residential areas, light industry, the city’s airport, and a public sports complex.

Some of us learned about the terminal when an obscure Department of Environmental Protection air permit was published in the Hometown News, other residents weren’t made aware until a shocking story appeared in The Daytona Beach News-Journal – and none of us were informed by embarrassed Volusia County or Ormond Beach officials – leaving our elected dullards looking like the out-of-the-loop know-nothings they are…

The ensuing shitstorm of controversy has proven to wary Volusia County taxpayers that when the chips are down, there are precious few elected and appointed “representatives” looking out for our interests in the cloistered Halls of Power in DeLand, or elsewhere.    

When their physical safety, property values, and quality of life are at stake, concerned citizens will always take a stand, band together, and find ways to protect their families despite the blunders and omissions of an unresponsive, out of touch, and fumble fingered bureaucracy. 

Recently, concerned residents and environmental advocates proposed a charter amendment to address what the Volusia County Council and some municipal governments continue to ignore – namely development-induced flooding, a complete disregard of concurrency requirements, and the claustrophobic effects of sprawl, increased density, and explosive growth.

According to a petition proposed by civic activist Cathrine Pante and others, “…a Rural Boundary Charter Amendment to the Volusia County Charter is a potential solution to this issue. The Amendment will act as a tool to control development within our rural areas, allowing the County Council to better manage and restrict expansions that pose a threat to our homes, our livelihoods, and our natural surroundings.”

“We urge the Volusia County Council and Staff to create and put forward this amendment for a vote on the 2026 Ballot. No longer can we stand by and accept the excuse that the County cannot stop city annexations. Let’s protect Volusia County’s rural areas and the people who call it home.”    

Naturally, the very notion of requiring a rural margin between malignant urbanized sprawl and more of the same – typically by requiring a majority vote to approve development in those areas or before a city can annex unincorporated areas – caused a panic among those developer finger-puppets on the Volusia County Council intent on protecting the very lucrative status quo for their campaign contributors. 

On Tuesday, we got another nauseating peek at just how far some on the Volusia County Council will go when At-Large Councilman Jake Johansson attempted to tee-up the issue and kick it soundly down the dusty political trail by moving to postpone discussion of the issue until March 2025 and requiring the measure be taken up by the Charter Review Commission next year.

In effect, Mr. Johansson put time and distance (and what his cronies hope will be the defeat of Chairman Jeff Brower) between starting the lengthy process many disenfranchised residents are praying will result in the charter amendment being placed on the ballot in 2026.

Another example of the Volusia County Council’s pernicious practice of off-the-agenda “public policy by ambush.”  

Per usual, when Chairman Brower pushed back, describing the rural boundary amendment as an effective way of preventing what he described as “hostile annexations,” announcing that he was setting a discussion of the matter on the October Volusia County Council agenda – he was badgered by the likes of Councilman David “No Show” Santiago, accused of making “inaccurate statements,” and “rewriting the dictionary” – in one of Santiago’s hyper-theatrical displays of legislative time-wasting.

The ensuing wriggling and squirming turned downright ugly when Chairman Brower sought clarification from County Attorney Michael Dyer regarding his rights as Chair under the County Charter to place items on the council agenda.

In perhaps the worst display of civic insubordination I’ve ever witnessed, Dyer chirped that while the Chair can place items on the agenda – the majority can merely override it and control the timing of the item through obstructionism and procrastination – a politically risky ploy, especially when We, The Little People who pay for all this sabotage and stalling turn up to speak on the item.

It went deeper…

When Mr. Dyer raised his voice and openly quibbled whether the October agenda has yet been “published” – then accused Brower of putting “staff” between himself and the majority of the council – in my view, he crossed a very bright line between legal advice and political strategy – presented by an argumentative asshole clearly trying to publicly knee-cap Brower while preening for his protectors…

Ultimately, Councilman Johansson’s motion was approved on a 4-3 vote – with Councilmen Troy Kent and Don Dempsey siding with Brower – and the completely confused Councilman Matt Reinhart initially voting with the majority (as he undoubtedly intended), then somehow claimed he “misunderstood” what he was voting for? 

Really?

I don’t make this shit up, folks… 

Before we move on, let’s talk about Councilman Danny Robins’ – that ventriloquist dummy with the disingenuous ability to speak out of both sides of his mouth – on the growing issue of development-induced flooding, downplayed by his constant self-congratulatory gaslighting.

Unbelievably, on Tuesday, Robins directed failed senior staff to look sopping wet residents throughout Volusia County in the eye and tell them all the wonderful things they are doing to mitigate flooding while the water continues to rise – and the bulldozers continue to roar…

Sick.   

When Robins advised he attended a meeting in Edgewater where inundated residents (who are literally mad as wet hens) were passionate about flooding threatening their homes and accused Volusia County of not doing enough to help struggling property owners (because they haven’t) – he proceeded to parade his clique of senior department heads to the podium in what we are to believe was an unrehearsed defense of the bureaucracy’s ineptitude.   

Bullshit.

To show the behind-the-scenes nature of these well-choreographed productions that pass for “public meetings,” Councilman “No Show” Santiago pivoted the narrative, somehow assuming that Robins was speaking of Chairman Brower as being the one who disparaged county flood control efforts at the Edgewater meeting (he was) insinuating that Brower made “false statements” to the public – something Robins readily agreed with.  

It was clumsy, weird, and incredibly telling…

In my view, this coordinated campaigning from the dais – coupled with the near-constant marginalization of Chairman Brower in an internal and external attempt to gain a rubber stamp majority on the council to do the unfettered bidding of their “friends” and political benefactors – is inexcusable. 

It’s probably criminal in the context of Florida’s public meeting law… 

Trust me.  These shameless shills do not represent your interests. 

In fact, Danny Robins and “No Show” Santiagos view you as little more than an inconvenient impediment to the wants and whims of those influential insiders who own the paper on their political souls.

This is why we have elections. 

Vote like your lives and livelihoods depend upon it…

First Step Shelter Board

The concept of fiduciary responsibility is a legal duty that ensures elected and appointed members of boards, councils, and commissions hold themselves to the ethical obligations that come with the oversight and direction of public and private organizations.

A solemn bond of trust between decisionmakers and stakeholders.

Does any of this sound remotely familiar to the conduct of the tumultuous First Step Shelter and its disheveled, disorganized, and wholly unaccountable “leadership” and governance? 

As things deteriorate – with public confidence in the enigmatic publicly funded program at an all-time low – rather than commission a comprehensive investigation into credible allegations of malfeasance and misconduct brought by three former senior staff members against executive director Victoria Fahlberg, the First Step Board intentionally fumbled and completely ignored their fiduciary responsibly to Volusia County taxpayers. 

Look, bad things happen in the best organizations.  It is how leadership responds to controversy and scandal that speaks to their values and internal character.

To that end, at First Step, some board members went so far as to openly besmirch the honor and reputation of the whistleblowers – painting the allegations as a “scam” – and voting to end their incomplete investigation in what many see as a blatant cover-up that marks the beginning of the end for a program that was never fully explained or understood by those asked to pay the bills.

To their credit, last week, we learned that Volusia County is taking a cautionary pause before considering throwing another $2 million of our tax dollars to First Step over the next five-years – a program wracked by controversy and unresolved questions of financial improprieties, personnel issues, and safety concerns.

Now caught between a rock and hard place, the Daytona Beach City Commission and Mayor Derrick Henry – who also serves as president of the First Step board – recently voted to renew the “shelter’s” lease and continue funding the troubled program with $400,000 in public funds annually. 

What else where they going to do?

My hope is that this signals a pending change in leadership at First Step. 

During pointed comments at a recent board meeting, Mayor Henry remarked “There are things at the shelter that rise to a deep level of concern,” Henry said. “The situation we’re in is because of leadership.”

He’s right. 

However, in my view, the “leadership” issues plaguing First Step go far deeper than Victoria Fahlberg.  Recently, there were murmurs that the board wanted to take the program private as a way of exempting their meetings and governance from the public eye.

Why is that? 

What’s the big secret that no one is talking about at First Step?

Trust me.  Nothing would make Daytona Beach and Volusia County taxpayers happier than to get First Step off the public teat – but that’s not going to happen.   Not now.

In the view of many weary taxpayers, the program needs a fresh start.  Open the windows and let the disinfecting sunlight in, then establish some basic ground rules for the management and independent oversight of First Step. 

That process begins by accepting the resignation of Director Fahlberg and the current board members, then establish a governing apparatus with volunteers more concerned about the organization’s mission than in listening to themselves spew hot air. 

According to reports, the County of Volusia can revisit First Step funding after the start of the fiscal year in November or December.   

Let’s hope our elected representatives on the County Council have the courage to demand answers to these lingering questions before allocating one more dime of our hard-earned tax dollars to this growing civic quagmire.

New Smyrna Beach City Commission

“Before casting his vote to approve, Cleveland said he was “delighted with the public participation tonight, and the passion with which I see our concerned citizens.”

“There are some that just say ‘no,’ a group that just says, ‘I want us to be like we used to be and don’t want anything to change,’” the mayor said. “To you, I’m very sorry — the clock will tick, and we will change.

“I want to protect our coastal community, the environment, I want to protect what we have today. But the genie is out of the bottle, it does not go back, and I know that. So caution, and math, logic and science when we make decisions like that is important, just as much as transparency and getting everybody’s opinion on it,” he added.”

–New Smyrna Beach Mayor Fred Cleveland, as quoted by reporter Brenno Carillo writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “NSB approves rezoning of 1,618-acre land where Deering Park is proposed,” Thursday, September 12, 2024

“I’m very sorry – The clock will tick, and we will change…”

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the passing of the quaint beach community of New Smyrna Beach – a sad epitaph engraved in asphalt and concrete – by spineless politicians who pay arrogant lip service to passionate citizens seeking substantive participation in decisions that will drastically and forever effect their quality of life… 

I don’t know Mayor Fred Cleveland – but I know many shortsighted political hacks like him. 

Bobbleheads who know what’s best for the rest of us, and prefer the soothing tone of a polished land use attorney selling them a pig in a poke, over the impassioned pleas of their frightened constituents, then have the chutzpah to claim their decisions are based on “…caution, and math, logic and science…” 

My ass.  

Let’s call this latest insult to the worried citizens of New Smyrna Beach what it is – abject greed in a growth at all cost environment – facilitated by mealy-mouth politicians who lack the vision and will to protect what made their once quaint community unique.  

Before his reelection in the August primary, Mayor Cleveland promised existing residents on his campaign website:

“As your Mayor, I am focused on safeguarding all that makes our city wonderfully unique as well as our city’s challenges and opportunities.”

So, what happened? 

I guess a comprehensive plan amendment rezoning 1,618 acres of property once set aside as agriculture, forestry resources, and conservation (a/k/a flood control, aquifer recharge, wildlife habitat, conservation, etc.) to accommodate a developer’s desire for 2,150 houses, apartments – millions of square feet of pavement – in a mishmash “planned unit development” incorporating mixed-use/commercial/residential called the Deering Innovation Park must be one of those “opportunities” Mayor Cleveland crowed about…

Of course, land use attorney Glen Storch reassured everyone that his client isn’t looking to build anything right now. 

Of course not.  This is all just fun-n-games.  

“This is a planning exercise.  “This is not a development exercise,” Storch told The News-Journal last week.”

Sure…

While other NSB Commissioners puled and mewled over their weighty decision – always coming back to their rock-solid confidence in the developer’s mouthpiece to do the right thing and assuage the very real fears of existing residents buy claiming their every concern will be addressed in the master development agreement and planned unit development.

You know, real fears – like widespread flooding, increased density, additional traffic on already overwhelmed streets – and the rapid demise of greenspace and wildlife habitat in western reaches of their community. 

To her credit, Commissioner Lisa Martin cast the lone “No” vote on the comp plan amendment – rightfully describing the proposed development as “massive” – and voicing her opinion that city officials need “to have more citizen input.”

“This will definitely impact the city of New Smyrna Beach,” Martin said. “Shouldn’t the stakeholders have more of a say?”

Not according to Mayor Fred Cleveland. 

That greedy genie is out of the bottle, and he doesn’t give two-shits what existing residents forced to live with the lasting impacts have to say…

Quote of the Week

“The libertarian principle holds that government’s legitimate role is minimal, focusing on protecting individual rights and property. This principle extends to ensuring that any development does not infringe upon the rights of current residents to safely and securely enjoy their properties. It is neither anti-development nor anti-growth to demand that infrastructure issues be resolved before further burdens are placed on it. Indeed, it is a demand for responsible, sustainable growth that respects the rights and safety of all citizens.”

–Matt Johnson, DeLand, as excerpted from his Letter to the Editor in the West Volusia Beacon, “No to Rezoning,” Tuesday, September 17, 2024  

What he said…

And Another Thing!

Share a secret?

I can’t do long division or figure a tip in a restaurant without counting on my fingers, and those things they call the “multiplication tables” remain an abstract mathematical mystery to me.  They call it dyscalculia, an inability to comprehend basic arithmetic. 

I can tell you from experience; it can be exasperating – and embarrassing.  Afterall, a grown man who can’t calculate basic addition and subtraction… 

Perhaps in exchange for accepting this disability, I was gifted with the almost paranormal ability to detect political bullshit in all its forms. 

A finely-honed sixth sense originating in the parietal lobe of my gin-soaked brain – a supernatural sagacity, carefully cultivated after years of repeatedly touching the hot stove, sharpened by repeat victimization, an extrasensory insight that allows me to perceive political chicanery before I step in it… 

A blessing and a curse, I suppose.  

Which brings me to this week’s jumbled musings on why some local political candidates receive fawning special treatment (and astronomical campaign donations from all the right last names) while others receive a swift kick in the crotch by paternalistic insiders with a chip in the game…   

As a dilettante opinionist and concerned taxpayer, I’ve become a champion for solid local journalism. 

In fact, our civic, political, economic, and social wellbeing depend upon strong oversight, advocacy, and unvarnished facts from trusted area media sources as reported by those of, by, and for the community they cover.   

Unfortunately, what remains of The Daytona Beach News-Journal is increasingly a hodge-podge of homogenized stories from Gannett properties with precious few investigative digs – in a place desperately in need of a major excavation. 

That’s unfortunate.  Because the News-Journal has some of the best investigative journalists in the business. 

Admittedly, I’m far from objective when it comes to the absurdity of politics here on Florida’s “Fun Coast,” a dark warren inhabited by self-serving marionettes, hand-selected by extremely wealthy insiders, to protect the stagnant status quo.

Shameless tax-and-spend shills masquerading as “fiscal conservatives” who marginalize anyone who stands against the growth at all costs overdevelopment that has made the few insanely rich at the expense of our quality of life.

I could be wrong (I’m not), but earlier this week I got the discomforting impression The Daytona Beach News-Journal was playing favorites in the Volusia County Chair race…   

For at least the second time this election cycle, the News-Journal gave special treatment to a 2023 speech County Council Chair Jeff Brower gave to something called the Republican Liberty Caucus of West Volusia which contained references to God and his deep faith.

During the speech, Brower expressed his personal thoughts on the religious guidance and values of our nation’s founding fathers in the context of what he believes is today’s “…corrupt national and local government that cares nothing about the rule of law or the Constitution.”

The article, which appeared on Constitution Day, was not an op/ed – and it wasn’t the first time the speech has been publicly dissected by the newspaper. 

Curiously, the first mention was just days before the August primary when a clip of Brower’s speech appeared in the News-Journal – and was subsequently posted to social media by the Democratic Club of Southwest Volusia with the hashtag #weird…  

This week’s News-Journal piece was published under the header “politics” – entitled, “Brower responds to criticisms regarding his views on the role of religion in government” – couched in the context of the separation of church and state on the 237th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution.

According to the report, “Brower retold that story as part of his 41-minute speech to the Republican Liberty Caucus of West Volusia in June 2023. He veered off the history in describing a nation about to erupt into civil war over the prosecution of former President Donald Trump, public education under “Satan’s deception,” “inaccurate” voting booths, Democrat-controlled cities as cesspools, politicians and press trying to destroy the republic, and a gay pride flag flying over the White House was giving “the finger” to God.”

That set the stage for some Tallahassee mouthpiece for what remains of the fossilized American Civil Liberties Union to accuse Brower of “indoctrinating” his constituents and “evangelizing” instead of serving the public in his elected role.   

Then, Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, the Atlantic Coast president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, put the boots to Brower, opining that “…Brower’s comments belie his oath to “support, protect and defend the Constitution” of both the United States and Florida.”

“In both those constitutions, We the People have agreed not to permit an ‘establishment of religion’ by our government. Yet, Brower clearly seems to desire to establish his brand of Christianity in Volusia County,” said Shapiro, of Palm Coast.”

Say what? 

Did I mention that Chairman Brower was speaking within the confines of the ultra-conservative Republican Liberty Caucus of West Volusia, not pontificating from the dais of power in DeLand?

Of course, the News-Journal then invited Mr. Brower’s opponent in the upcoming general election, “Car Guy” Randy Dye – the darling of the donor class – an opportunity to provide his thoughts. 

Apparently, during his speech Mr. Brower, a longtime proponent of smart growth initiatives – suggested that Dye (whose campaign has been widely funded by real estate development interests) supports increased growth for his own self-enrichment, “If our population doubles, his (Dye’s) personal wealth doubles.”

According to the report, Mr. Dye responded:

“Dye said he anticipates his business “will do well,” but he’s not planning on working for the business for the rest of his life.

“First off, I don’t want to see our population double,” Dye said. “Our quality of life in our community is what’s most important to me.”

Dye said he’s an elder at his church of 25 years, City Sanctuary in DeLand, and that he aims to give grace when he has received much of it.

“I’ve probably learned more over the years from people I started out disagreeing with more than the ones I agreed with,” Dye said. “This election is really about trying to unite a community and not trying to decide who doesn’t fit in a community. (It’s about) erasing lines that separate us and building bridges that will bring us together.”

Although Chairman Brower declined an interview request, to their credit, the News-Journal included his emailed statement:

“I am a follower of Christ. Christ offers an invitation, not an imposition. Our Constitution guarantees there will never be an imposition of a state religion, and I support that. I encourage everyone to embrace their faith on a personal level in both good times and bad.”

Believe me, Brower’s fellow self-described “Conservative Republican” colleagues – some of whom have openly endorsed his opponent – weren’t falling all over themselves to defend the Chairman’s right to express his personal religious beliefs to a partisan political club.

(Find the News-Journal’s full report here: https://tinyurl.com/3jr32her )

My third eye tells me the News-Journal’s multiple reporting on a 15-month-old speech was designed to hurt Mr. Brower by painting his religious beliefs as extreme or a violation of their view of civic secularism.

In addition, earlier this week those stodgy curmudgeons who comprise Volusia’s stagnant Old Guard over at the Volusia Republican Executive Committee (a group even veteran area Republicans call divisive and angry) voted to endorse Randy Dye over Chairman Brower – even though Brower won the primary election with 42% of the vote? 

Things that make you go Humm…

I was equally disappointed by a disturbing article in the Ormond Beach Observer this week reporting the recent vandalism of political signs displayed by Carl and Susan Persis – who are running for Volusia County School Board and Ormond Beach Mayor, respectively. 

According to the report, earlier this month, someone defaced several Persis signs by placing stickers over the candidates photographs which said, “Be Yourself, You Suck!” and “You Suck!” with at least one sign damaged with spray paint.   

That’s unacceptable.   

But what followed was essentially a 900-word campaign advertisement in the Observer detailing what dandies Susan and Carl are – complete with not-so-veiled accusations that Mr. Persis’ opponent in the School Board Race – Donna Brosemer – could somehow put a stop to the criminal mischief if she wanted to…   

“The hate that’s out there is very unsettling to me,” she said. “I don’t feel like Carl and I have ever done anything to anyone to deserve such hateful behavior, ever.”

Who would vandalize or remove their signs?

“That’s a good question, ‘Who’s going to benefit?” she said. “Well, the answer is quite obvious.”

Carl, the incumbent School Board member, is running against former lobbyist Donna Brosemer, who has the governor’s endorsement for the race. In 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis identified 14 school board members he wished to remove from office in a meeting with House Speaker Paul Renner, Moms for Liberty and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz. Carl was among the 14.”

Adding to the “Hate Crime of the Century” sensationalism was an inset announcing Mr. Persis is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible with directions to contact the Ormond Beach Police Department…

Whatever.

Strikingly lacking from the Observer’s Persis campaign promotion was an opportunity for Ms. Brosmer to defend herself from the pretentious power couple’s baseless allegations…

In my view, that was also unacceptable.

On Tuesday, five-days after the original Persis sign article appeared, Ms. Brosmer was quoted by the Observer in a follow-up article, rightfully calling the tempest in a teapot what it was. 

“Brosemer told the Observer that Carl Persis has made “a mountain out of a molehill” as he still has plenty of signs around the district, especially in Ormond Beach. Despite having her own signs damaged, Brosemer said, she feels it’s a trivial issue compared to what needs to be discussed in the school district.”

In addition, Ms. Brosemer described similar issues with vandalism and the theft of her campaign signs but doesn’t plan to file a police report. 

According to the report, “The Persis name is very well known,” Brosemer said. “And he, Carl in particular, has quite a following, a very dedicated following. Sometimes passions get carried away. If any of that has happened on my side, I’m not aware of it.”

Look, I may lack basic math skills – but I can spot the exact second the exalted “Movers & Shakers” of Volusia’s oligarchy get nervous as election day approaches. 

And I know why…    

You do too. Vote your conscience.    

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the news and newsmakers of the day who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life or detracted from it in some significant way…

First Step Shelter Board

Once again, the “Fun Coast” resonated this week with the exasperated groans of Volusia County taxpayers expressing their utter disgust with the wholly compromised First Step Shelter Board.

On Monday, board members pulled the old distracted-referee trope – flagrantly ignoring offers of cooperation by a whistleblower and clear indicators of a toxic internal environment, before shutting down its woefully incomplete “investigation,” seemingly intent on sweeping serious allegations at the publicly funded “shelter” under the rug. 

In another alarming exposé by investigative journalist Eileen Zaffiro-Kean writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal this week, we learned:

“First Step Shelter Board members voted unanimously Monday night to end their probe into whistleblower complaints brought by former shelter employee Patrick Smith.

The two-month investigation looked into allegations that ranged from financial mismanagement to residents being endangered. Shelter Executive Director Victoria Fahlberg, who has said very little publicly about the investigation to date, read a statement during Monday night’s meeting.

“While some people want to focus on their personal agendas, we would like to get back to focusing on our clients and our mission,” she said in the statement. “I’m glad we are moving on from this very sad and despicable waste of time and money that diverted us from our mission of transforming the lives of Volusia County’s most vulnerable.”

Seriously? 

Their official response is, “Move along, folks.  Nothing to see here.  We’ve done a half-assed “investigation” – now, slop the trough with $800,000 more of your hard-earned tax dollars and keep your nose out of our important “mission“?

I’ll just bet Director Fahlberg is glad her bosses are “moving on.” 

Because most fiduciarily responsible members of boards, councils, and commissions charged with financial and administrative oversight in the public and private sectors would never countenance this cheap charade – especially when our tax dollars are at stake.  

As Fahlberg rushes to put this “waste of time” behind her – those of us who pay the bills are increasingly cynical of the mysterious inner-workings of the enigmatic First Step program – a chronic source of civic controversy that has given the City of Daytona Beach a perpetual blackeye – due, in part, to the complete lack of transparency, abject arrogance of certain board members, and the program’s historic inability to effectively impact the very visible “homeless problem” in many areas of Volusia County.

To his credit, Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry, who serves as the First Step board’s president, said publicly what anxious taxpayers have been thinking all along:

“There are things at the shelter that rise to a deep level of concern,” Henry said. “The situation we’re in is because of leadership.”

Of course, the Mayor’s painfully obvious observation didn’t seem to hold water with the rest of the “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” board members who prefer to deal with allegations and improprieties by ignoring them…

According to the News-Journal, “Board member Joan Campanaro also expressed concerns, but most of the nine First Step board members said they wanted to move on and stop spending shelter dollars on the probe.

“I think we’re making a big deal over nothing,” said board member Rose Ann Tornatore.

Board member Mike Panaggio charged that Smith’s accusations were baseless, and arose from an employee in trouble for poor performance retaliating against his boss.

“I think we’ve been scammed,” Panaggio said.”

You read that right.  I’m sure the whistleblower’s attorney did too…   

According to previous reports detailing the First Step debacle, the three employees who brought serious allegations of maleficence, fraudulent activities, discriminatory bias, ongoing harassment, retaliation, breaches of confidentiality, unethical behavior, and fostering a toxic work environment to light include Mr. Smith, the shelter’s former director of philanthropy and engagement, Kim Kelly, a former shelter nurse, and Pamela Alexander, the shelter’s former housing coordinator.

In her disturbing report, Zaffiro-Kean confirmed:

“Shortly after the whistleblower complaint was filed in June, Smith and Alexander were fired, and Kelly resigned on July 18.

Kelly gave a sworn statement to Scott Simpson, the Ormond Beach attorney who was paid $5,000 to investigate the complaints. Simpson said he spoke with Fahlberg and the shelter’s accountant, but not Smith or Alexander.

Simpson offered to conduct more interviews for another $3,000, but at their Aug. 12 meeting board members declined, with three of them saying they didn’t want to spend any more money on the probe.”

Board members said part of the reason they stopped looking into Smith’s allegations was because he didn’t talk to Simpson. But Smith’s attorney, Kelly Chanfrau, said both she and Smith told Simpson that Smith wanted to talk to him.”

Ah, the old “You can’t cooperate in the investigation of your complaint, because we’ve already shut down the investigation into your complaint” dodge, eh?     

I don’t make this shit up, folks…

Adding to the wildfire of suspicion and conjecture is the concerted bureaucratic effort to keep Scott Simpson’s investigative report – something our tax dollars paid for – a secret. 

According to reports, Daytona Beach City Attorney Ben Gross is working overtime to keep the Simpson report far away from the prying eyes of citizens and decisionmakers by using a weird slight-of-hand that opines, “…because the complaints brought by Kelly and Alexander were not formally closed out, the report will remain in the hands of only Fahlberg and the board members.”

How convenient. 

Now, inquiring minds want to know what Attorney Gross and the First Step Board are so desperately trying to hide?

According to the News-Journal:

“Gross summarized portions of the report at Monday’s meeting, saying Simpson focused mainly on allegations of financial impropriety. Gross said Simpson found “a glitch” in the way a $50 donation had been recorded, and there was a concern with a $1,700 grant from the Florida Department of Children and Families, but the DCF money was accounted for.

Gross said many of the things in the complaint were “dramatic,” but most did not apply to a whistleblower complaint under the law.  (Say’s who?)

Board member Don Burnette said it was hard to take some of the allegations seriously when the main complainant didn’t talk to the investigator.

“A prosecuting attorney with no witness doesn’t have a case,” Burnette said.”

Now we know that the “main complainant” – Mr. Smith – notified Investigator Simpson through his attorney that he wanted to assist in the inquiry and his offer was ignored.    

Instead, based on their incomplete “investigation,” the board saw fit to shut things down, besmirch Smith’s personal and professional reputation, categorize his complaints as a “scam,” and ensure that other potential whistleblowers are aware of the life-altering fate that awaits any First Step employee who dares come forward with allegations of fraud or maladministration.  

There are many reasons Port Orange Mayor Don Burnette’s political career has fizzled, and his piss-poor judgement, lack of leadership, and lemming-like commitment to groupthink are a few of them…

If history repeats (and it always does around here), what will come next is the nonsensical nattering of Board Member Mike Panaggio as we await another of his weird late-night screeds on social media. 

Another self-aggrandizing harangue bashing the complainants’ motivations, crowing about First Step’s “accomplishments,” while attempting to deflect our attention from the serious accusations that continue to plague the tax supported program.  

We’re wise to that ploy, Pinocchio… 

My hope is that someone (like Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, the First Amendment Foundation, The Brennan Center for Justice, The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Gannett, et.al.) will demand the lawful and immediate release of the Simpson report – then seek proper accountability under the law for anyone found complicit in shielding this publicly funded report from taxpayers and decisionmakers who are now being asked to allocate even more of our hard-earned dollars to this troubled program.  

Kudos to News-Journal reporter Eileen Zaffiro-Kean for her journalistic diligence in seeking answers and peeling the myriad layers of this rotten onion.  If you pay taxes in Volusia County, you owe it to yourself to read this informative article here: https://tinyurl.com/4yzxe6dt

Port Orange Councilman-Elect Lance Green

Unfortunately, abhorrent, even criminal, personal conduct by politicians and those holding high public office is nothing new, or particularly shocking, to a weary constituency inured to the lies, proclivities, and abject arrogance of those we elect and appoint to “represent” our interests. 

In times past, the antidote for self-inflicted personal and political humiliation was to quietly apologize then step aside.  Because admitting a mistake, then having the moral courage to accept responsibility and do what is necessary to preserve the dignity of the office, is important to restoring the public’s trust in our system of governance. 

Not anymore.

Last week, Port Orange Councilman-Elect Lance Green and his wife, Susan, entered the Barker’s View Hall of Shame following a traffic accident near Williamson Boulevard and Taylor Road when Green’s truck allegedly collided with the rear of another vehicle.

In a disturbing turn, a recent report by Frank Fernandez writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal confirmed the age-old adage that the coverup is always worse than the crime:

“A traffic camera video released after his arrest for DUI appears to show newly elected Port Orange Councilman Lance Green getting out of the driver’s seat of his pickup after it rear-ended another pickup, then walking around and getting in the passenger seat.

Green, who was with his wife, then claimed to police that she was driving.

The crash led to Green’s arrest 10 days after he won a seat on the Port Orange City Council, on which he would begin serving in December.”

Then, things went from bad to worse… 

According to reports, while being questioned at the scene, Mrs. Green was captured on an officer’s body worn camera uttering the six words guaranteed to expose any tiny town pseudo-celebrity politician/spouse as the arrogant and egomaniacal assholes they are:

“Do you know who we are?”

Yeah.  I know.

That haughty rhetorical question tells us everything we need to know about what Mr. and Mrs. Green are.       

Things deteriorated from there…   

Following his arrest, Councilman-Elect Green was transported to the Port Orange Police Department where he asked arresting officers to contact the Chief of Police (why?) before being admonished by a supervisor for disrespecting officers after Green allegedly used what the News-Journal described as “The “B” word” – whatever the hell that is – something the police supervisor rightly described as “completely out of line.” 

Of course, Green denied everything… 

To compound the problem, following her husband’s arrest Susan Green is reported to have contacted the police department to reiterate that she was driving at the time of the accident.

“While Green was in the cell, his wife called the police department and said she was not sure why her husband had been arrested and again said he had not been driving.”

Which, in my jaded view, proves there is a difference between the congenitally dumb and the criminally stupid.  In Florida, it is a criminal offense to knowingly give false information to a law enforcement officer.  In fact, it is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to one-year in jail and a $1,000 fine. 

Inexplicably, Susan Green made matters worse by describing her husband’s arrest as a “vendetta” – claiming the victim of the accident had a reason to lie about Lance Green driving, “Because he would like to see my husband out of office and sue us.”

Say what?

I guarantee you that 99.999% of Port Orange residents couldn’t pick Lance or Susan Green out of a line-up (unless, of course, they crashed into the ass-end of their vehicle at a major intersection, then played musical chairs…) 

Don’t take my word for it. 

Perform your own non-scientific study:  Simply ask the next person you meet to name their mayor, members of the City Commission, or the County Council… 

You’ll be surprised at the number of catatonic stares you receive.

Look, I get it.  People make mistakes. 

Including powerful politicians who hold themselves out for high office and ask to make decisions that affect our lives and livelihoods; ostensibly good citizens with a willingness to serve their community. 

In my view, it is how they respond to those errors in judgement that exposes their true character. 

I suspect at 59-years-old Lance Green knows that – especially now that he has become an embarrassment to his family, his constituents, and his community.   

More to the point, if probable cause exists that Councilman-Elect Green and his wife knowingly lied to Port Orange police during a lawful investigation as the current evidence suggests – he should put his enormous ego aside and immediately resign his important office – rather than put his constituents through the time-consuming and intentionally confusing process of recalling him.    

Then, both should be publicly prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law – held out as an example to others who would seek the public trust then shit on it for personal and political convenience.

County of Volusia & FDOT

Did you ever know someone who was overly confident in everything they do, boasts ad nauseum about their perceived “accomplishments,” acts haughtily superior to others, always controlling and manipulative in their dealings, lies blatantly to themselves and others, overly confident despite results, dismissive of suggestions or criticism, with no real relationships, a complete lack of empathy, and an unrealistic sense of their own self-importance? 

Yeah.  Me neither…   

Unfortunately, I’ve discovered that those same narcissistic traits can be found in certain government organizations; especially those who have cloistered themselves, turned insular, and forgotten who and why they serve. 

Sound familiar?

When it comes to bureaucratic blunders (and I’ve made some whoppers during my days in local government), in my experience, most people can forgive what they see themselves doing. 

In most cases, the admission “I made a mistake,” coupled with an explanation, a sincere apology, and a genuine effort to correct an oversight or error in judgement, will go a long way toward building trusting relationships, resolving conflict, and gaining valuable experience. 

They call that a ‘learning opportunity’ – an organizational or personal commitment to self-accountability – the concept of taking ownership of actions and outcomes.

That’s why the ongoing travesty that is the horribly neglected East International Speedway Boulevard – that perennially dilapidated ‘gateway’ to the “World’s Most Famous Beach” and the busiest beach access point in Volusia County – is so damnably frustrating to anyone who lives here, operates a business, relies on our area’s hospitality industry, or promotes the Daytona Beach Resort Area as a vacation destination.   

Think about it:  If you had the omnipotent power to wave a bureaucratic wand and completely shut down a major roadway on the beachside – one that allows access to several family-owned small businesses – would you blockade the busiest ramp in the region during the height of the summer tourism season?

What if business owners affected by the extended closure voiced concerns?  

Would you lie to them – cruelly assuaging their fears with fabrications and falsehoods? 

Would you tell frightened businesses that you were leaving a traffic lane open to allow customer access – then callously pull the rug out from under them – knowing full well that was never an option in the first place?      

Do you see yourself doing something that hurtful just to protect your own ass?

Me Neither…

This week, Sam Tadros, the beleaguered owner of a small business near the East ISB beach ramp was quoted in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, lamenting how the project has caused him to temporarily shut his doors – and put plans for another desperately needed beachside business on hold:

“It’s just been horrible,” Tadros said on Friday morning, as a construction crew toiled away.

Tadros said that before he signed his lease, Volusia County Coastal Division Director Jessica Fentress told him that half of the road would remain open during the project, but Public Works Director Ben Bartlett said that wasn’t the county’s intent due to safety considerations.

“Unfortunately this project needs to be done and it’s going to cause a disruption, and we’re working hard to minimize this disruption,” Bartlett said.”

Let’s face it, it is increasingly apparent that the interminable roadwork on East International Speedway Boulevard is being completed by two hobbyists having fun in their spare time… 

For most of the summer, the worksite has had been an uninviting eyesore with no end in sight. 

Now, we are being told that Volusia County officials “coordinated” (I seriously doubt they know the definition of the word) with the Florida Department of Transportation to conduct “improvements” to the ramp simultaneous to the East ISB project. 

I guess if one logistical nightmare of a high-impact road project disrupting a major thoroughfare is good, two must be better, right?

Right…

Unfortunately, it appears this Confederacy of Dunces couldn’t be bothered to “coordinate” with area businessowners who have been isolated, blocked off, and left to suffer the catastrophic consequences of another ill-thought and poorly executed fiasco that absolutely no one in government will ever accept responsibility for.

So much for that whole “admitting a mistake and making things right again” horseshit I prattled on about, eh?

In a recent interview with Fox 35 Orlando, Zoltan Kerekes, who owns a small gift shop effected by the closure said:

“This has caused a significant drop in foot traffic and visibility, resulting in an 80% to 100% decline in our business,” Kerekes said.

Despite the construction slamming their businesses, Kerekes said they still had obligations to their landlords and others.

Volusia County staff released this statement about the construction:

“Renovation of the ISB Ramp is a much-needed upgrade that will benefit the entire community, and we’re expediting construction as much as possible. As with any project, our goal is to ensure minimal disruption to businesses and residents while delivering a high-quality result in the most efficient timeline. To further reduce construction time, we coordinated with the adjacent FDOT road improvement project, and we’re pleased to report that our project remains on schedule.”

Bullshit.

Do you see your small business keeping its doors open with an 80-100% decline in business?

Me neither…

Trust me.  For their expert use of the “dueling bureaucrats” ploy, a malicious scam which created the perfect bait-and-switch/he said-she said to distract these hamstrung businessowners, you can bet the enormous salaries, benefits, and pay raises of Director Fentress and Director Bartlette will continue like clockwork…

What say you, Volusia County Council members? 

Do you see anyone in the Ivory Tower of Power in DeLand being held accountable for the East ISB beach ramp debacle?

Me neither… 

As evidence of that, last week, Tadros and Kerekes approached their elected representatives on the Volusia County Council rightfully seeking assistance to help keep their businesses afloat during the blockade. 

After all, Volusia County and our various “economic development” shills routinely provide multi-million-dollar tax breaks, infrastructure improvements, cash handouts, backroom no-bid deals, land development code waivers, minimum revenue guarantees, expansive publicly funded marketing budgets, etc., etc. – all generously gifted to massive corporations on a mere promise of relocating to Daytona Beach.   

Then why not help a couple of struggling mom-and-pops who are tanking due to no fault of their own?

Set’s a bad precedence, huh? 

So does corporate welfare….     

According to Fox 35, “I am asking if there’s any kind of funding the county can provide at least to help cover our utilities and rent, just to get us through this,” Tadros said.

The business owners didn’t get a response from county officials at the meeting. County staff said the project was still set to wrap up in February.”

Yeah.  County staff says a lot of things… 

Do you believe them? 

Me neither… 

Quote of the Week

“The approved Volusia County School District budget is $1.4 billion, although that may be revised down because there are fewer enrolled students than were originally projected. Either way, that’s a lot of money.

I got curious recently and decided to look at where we were 10 years ago, especially given all the very loud chest-pounding over population growth. To my surprise, while our general population may be growing, our student population is not. We can’t say the same for the school district budget.

In 2014, we had approximately 61,000 students. Our budget was $777 million.

In 2024, we have approximately 61,000 students. Our budget is $1.4 billion.

My math says that’s a budget increase of approximately 80% in 10 years, with no increase in students.”

–Donna Brosemer, candidate for Volusia County School Board District 4, writing in the Ormond Beach Observer’s “My View” column, “Volusia County Schools’ budget doesn’t add up,” Monday, September 9, 2024 (Find it here: https://tinyurl.com/2xekraht )

It’s no secret. 

If you live or struggle to do business in Volusia County, Florida – and aren’t one of a handful of influential insiders with a chip in the game – you are paying exorbitant taxes and fees for diminishing or non-existent services and virtually no access, without any logical explanation from those self-described “fiscal conservatives” on the dais of power.

Those bald-faced liars who looked us in the eye and promised to protect our interests (and hard-earned money) when they groveled for our sacred vote and now refuse to even acknowledge our physical presence when we genuflect at the podium…

I’m certainly not a learned economist, but in my jaded view, Ms. Brosmer’s disturbing calculations prove Wilde’s assertion, “The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.”

What I found most disturbing was the District’s hyper-defensive reaction to Candidate Brosmer’s request for basic data regarding recently added district positions and the number of employees who have no student contact – reports and personnel analysis that should be readily available to administrators at the touch of a button: 

“Months ago, as new district positions were added at nearly every board meeting, I sent a public records request to the district, asking how many district employees, with no student contact, were employed five years ago, and how many were employed this year. I received an email, saying that my request required five hours of a supervisor’s time at $50/hour, and my bill would be in excess of $250. At $50/hour for that supervisor, my clerical request was being assigned to a $100,000/year unnamed employee.

Of course, the best way to discourage such requests, and make sure the public can’t get answers to simple questions, is to charge more than they will pay. It worked, so I still don’t know.

And the board doesn’t ask.”

Frightening.  And infinitely telling…  

In my view, the open fleecing of strapped Volusia County taxpayers is even worse across town at the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Building.

In that bottomless money pit, our do-nothing elected officials have adopted the “fox in the henhouse” theory of revenue allocations, where elected officials charged with acting in the public interest simply accept the suggestions (and contrived “fiscal emergencies”) of entrenched bureaucrats intent on protecting, benefitting, and expanding their own interests…

I hope you will take a minute to read Ms. Brosmer’s examination of Volusia District School’s rapidly expanding budget, now exceeding $1.4 billion, with a current enrollment of 61,000 (in a county with an estimated population of 601,049).

A horribly lopsided system where Superintendent Carmen Balgobin and her extensive (and expensive) coterie of senior administrators are allowed by our wholly ineffective School Board to repeatedly blunder from one official embarrassment to the next without question, oversight, or restraint.    

In my view, we live in a time when “consent of the governed” has been replaced with a mercenary shim-sham in which compromised elected “representatives” stifle public input, disband citizen advisory boards, protect the for-profit interests of influential insiders, and insulate the status quo by any means necessary – totally convinced their malleable senior staff will cover their asses with bureaucratic bullshit carefully packaged in a PowerPoint, while “We, The Little People” are expected to keep quiet and pay for it all.   

Vote like your quality of life depends upon it.  Because it does.

And Another Thing!

“Fellow genuine candidates who invest in their communities by dedicating time to citizen advisory boards, charter review committees, and local nonprofits now risk their reputations being damaged by Flemm’s stunt.

For tomorrow’s young leaders, we cannot allow this circus act to dissuade anyone from becoming involved in the community, or voters from trusting that the younger generations have good intentions. We need the next generation of civic leaders to start learning community involvement and civil political skills and processes today — and it takes time!

As an elected official, I leave you with this charge: Check out your local government’s openings on advisory boards; some cities have many! Join organizations like Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, or young professionals’ groups. Attend council meetings and candidate hob nobs. Run local 5Ks, socialize widely at these events, and talk to candidates.

Participation at this level along with voting goes a long way, and it helps officeholders develop their strategies and goals. Most of all, it restores faith between generations. We need to run campaigns on sincere platforms that can reassure the older generations that they can pass the torch because we are ready to lead.”

–DeBary City Council Member Jim Pappalardo, as excerpted from The West Volusia Beacon, Letters to the Editor, “Flemm strategy undermines tomorrow’s young civic leaders,” Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Let’s face it, dirty politics, shit-slinging character assassination, vicious mailers, ugly accusations, and intentionally skewing the playing field with coordinated donations to hand-select candidates are now sine qua non even for local political campaigns.

In his well-thought piece in The West Volusia Beacon, DeBary Councilman Jim Pappalardo opines that the mysterious John Flemm’s dubious tactics during the Volusia County Clerk of the Court primary resulted in “generational-reputation tarnishing” – personal or political conduct that paints other aspiring twentysomething candidates with a broad brush – making it infinitely more difficult for young politicians to gain the trust of voters, colleagues, and constituents.

That’s true.

As a prime example of Mr. Pappalardo’s concerns, look no further than the abysmal behavior caught on camera and broadcast to the masses on social media this week allegedly showing Edgewater Mayor Diezel “I Need Alcohol!” Depew, 20, acting, well, like all the reasons our Federal Government passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act… 

Cringeworthy, indeed.

I know, let he who is without sin cast the first stone – and I readily admit to underage drinking in my day (the drinking age was 18 when I was committing those embarrassing youthful indiscretions, well-before the immediate, worldwide, and lasting theater of social media). 

Now, as an elderly drunk, I remain the poster boy for the copious consumption of adult beverages, someone who has embraced the cocktail culture as a devout way of life.  But, like my father before me, (and because my hypocrisy knows no bounds) I have little tolerance for sloppy drunks of any age who can’t hold their liquor and act out irresponsibly… 

Poor form.     

That said, in my view, Mr. Depew, who was elected in 2022 at just 18-years-old (making him the youngest Mayor to ever hold office in Florida), as the ceremonial head of the City of Edgewater, has a sacred obligation to his 23,000 constituents to conduct himself with integrity, maturity, and self-restraint.    

Them’s the rules, young man… 

Having served the bulk of my life in municipal government, I was taught that conducting oneself in a manner that does not bring discredit upon your office and community, being honest in thought and deed, exercising discretion, maintaining personal integrity, and obeying the law are the moral imperatives of public service.

And they are nonnegotiable. 

In my view, Mayor Depew is old enough to know better and he should step aside.

Now is the time for Mr. Depew to do the right thing and resign his prominent position, leave quietly (preferably hand-in-hand with disgraced Port Orange Councilman-Elect Lance Green), get this childish self-indulgence out of his system, and come back to the arena when he can demonstrate the personal maturity to serve. 

There.  Another “Boomer” heard from…         

That said, I find it heartening to hear a young civic leader like Mr. Pappalardo defending unfashionable concepts like returning honor, dignity, and egalitarian ethics to the political landscape.

Although hobnobbing, socializing with the “Chamber” set, and ingratiating oneself with those stodgy partisan political camps are important strategies for first-time office seekers; in my view, keeping ones public and private life unsullied, speaking the truth, honoring the office, maintaining transparency, serving with dignity, and gaining the respect of others through personal and professional example are essential to earning and keeping the public trust.

Those attributes are not dependent on age, position, or experience. It is a factor of one’s individual values – a person’s core moral character. 

Those qualities that define who they are and how they conduct themselves when no one is looking – personal attributes that steel their ability to make ethical choices in a political pressure cooker – important traits that seem to be increasingly lost to the pernicious process of political evolution… 

I’m not talking about honest mistakes and personal failures.  Human faults and foibles will always be an integral part of the political process. 

However, in my view, We, The Little People should no longer accept these shameless assholes who intentionally violate our trust – those at all levels of government who erode public confidence – the arrogant “Do you know who I am?” set who see themselves as superior beings as they succumb to the trappings and honorifics of elective office. 

The fact is, there are good men and women – elected officials, senior administrators, and career civil servants – working inside local governments, and others considering elective service.  

Including a new generation with a fire in the belly – aspiring servant-leaders without lockstep loyalties who are willing to seek and consider public input on prominent issues – and view public service as a sacred privilege rather than an egotistic power trip.   

Age and experience come to all of us, but not all grow wiser.  It is character that counts. 

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!